AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses M ■JHOD 'uo|)|30is — I AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT is: OFPRIN^ JUL 9 1986 j ^.OG-:CALSt g^ TESTIMONY A THOtJSANB WITNESSES. " Behold Uifi witfced abominations iliat they do!" — Ezekiel, viii. 0. "•The ntjjiteous consxdereth the cause of the poor; but the wicked regardeth not to know it." — Prov. 29, ' True humanity consists not in a squeamish ear, but in listening to the story of human suffering and endea- voring to relieve it." — Charles James Fo.x. NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, OFFICE, No. 143 NASSAU STREET. 18 39. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. A MAJOKiTY of the facts and testimony contained in this work rests upon the authority of. sLAVTjioLUERs, whose names and residences are given to the public, as vouchers for the truth of their statements. That they should utter falsehoods, for the sake of proclaiming their own infamy, is not probable. Their testimony is taken, mainly, from recent newspapers, published in the slave states. Most of ihose papers will be deposited at the office of the American Anti-Slavery Societj'', 143 Nas- sau street, New- York City. Those who think the atrocities, which they describe, incredible, are invited to call and read for themselves. We regret that all of the original papers are not in our possession. The idea of preserving them on file for the inspection of the incredulous, and tlie curious, did not occur to us until after the preparation of the work was in a state of forwardness ^ iu consequence of this, some of the papers cannot be recovered. Nearly all of them, however have been preserved. In all cases the name of the paper is given, and, with very few excep- tions, the place and time, (year, month, and day) of publication. Some of the extracts, however not being made with reference to this work, and before its publication was contemplated, are without date ; but this class of extracts is exceedingly small, probably not a thirtieth of the whole The statements, not derived from the papers and other periodicals, letters, books, &c., pub- lished by slaveholders, have been furnished by individuals who have resided in slave states, many of whom are natives of those states, and have been slaveholders. The names, residences, &c. of the witnesses generally are given. A number of them, however, still reside in slave states ; — ' to publish their names would be, in njost cases, to make them the victims of popular fury. New- York, May 4, 1839. NOTE. The Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, while tendering their grate, ful acknowledgments, in the name of American Abolitionists, and in behalf of the slave, to those who have furnished for this publication the result of their residence and travel in the slave states ol this Union, announce their determination to publish, from time to time, as they may have the ma- terials and the funds, tracts, containing well authenticated facts, testimony, persoifel narratives, &c. fully setting forth the condition of American slaves. In order that they maybe furnished with the requisite materials, they invite all who have hnd personal knowledge of the condition of slaves in any of the states of this Union, to forward their testimony with tlieir names and residences. To prevent imposition, it is indispensable tliat persons forwarding testimony, who are not personally known to any of the Executive Committee, or to the Secretaries or Editors of the American Anti- Slavery Society, should furnish references to some person or persons of respectability, with whom, if necessary, the Committee may communicate respecting the writer. Facts and testimony respecting the condition of slaves, in all respects, are desired ; their food, (kinds, quality, and quantity,) clothing, lodging, dwellings, hours of labor and rest, kinds of labor, with the mode of exaction, supervision, &c. — the number and time of meals each day, treatment when sick, regulations respecting their social intercourse, marriage and domestic ties, the system of torture to which they are subjected, witli its various modes; and in detail, their intellectual and moral condition. Great care should be observed in the statement of facts. Well-weighed testimony and well-authenticated facts . with a responsible name, the Committee earnestly desire and call for. Thousands of persons in the free states have ample knowledge on this subject, de- rived from their own observation in the midst of slavery. Will such hold their peace? That which maketh manifest is light; he who keepeth his candle under a bushel at such a time and in sucii a cause as this, forges fetters for himself, as well as for the slave. Let no one withhold his testi- mony because others have already testified to similar facts. The value of testimony is by no means to be measured by the novelty of the horrors which it describes. Corroborative testimony, — facts, similar to those established by the testimony of others, — is highly valuable. Who tJiat can give it and has a heart of flesh, will refuse to the slave so small a boon ? Communications may be addressed to Theodore D. Weld, 143 Nassau-street, New York. New York, May, 1839. CONTENTS. Introduction. — ^7-10. Twenty-seven hundred thousand free bom citizens of t')e U. S. in slaveiy, 7 ; Tender mercies of slaveliolders, 8 : Abominations of slavery, 9: Character of the testimo- ny, 9-10. Personal Narratives — Part I. pp. 10-27. Narrative of Nehemiah Cavlkins, 10-2 ; North Carolina slavery, 11 ; Methodist preaching slavedriver, Galloway, 12 : Women at child-birth, 12 : Slaves at labor, 13 : Clothing of slaves, 13 ; Allowance of provisions, 13 ; Slave-fetters, 1.3 ; Cruelties to slaves, 13, 14, 15, Burying a slave alive, 15 ; Licentiousness of Slave- holders, 15, 16 ; Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, with his " hands tied," 16 ; Preachers cringe to slavery, 15 ; Nakedness of slaves, 16 ; Slave-huts, 16 ; Means of subsisteme for slaves, 16, 17 ; Slaves' prayer, 17. Narrrative of Rev. Horace Moslton, 17 ; Labor of the slaves, 18 ; Tasks, 18 ; Whipping posts, 18 ; Food, 1'al Narratives, Part II. pp 45-57. Testimony of the Rev. Wiilliam T. Allan. 45; Woman delivered of a de.-id child, being whipped, 46 ; Slaves shot by Hilton, 46 ; Cnielties to slaves, 46 ; Whip- puig post, 46 ; Assaults, and maimings, 46, 47 ; Mur- ders, 47; Puryear, " the Devil," 47; Overseers always armed, 44 ; Licentiousness of Overseers, 47 ; " Bend your backs," 47 ; Mrs. H., a Presbyterian, desirous to cut Arthur Tappau's throat, 47 ; Clothing, Huts, and Herding of slaves, 47 ; Iron yokes with prongs, 47 ; Marriage un- known among slaves, 46 ; Presbyterian minister at Huats- ville, 47 ; Concubinage in Preacher's house, 47 ; Slavery, the great wrong, 47. NARR.vnvE or Willia.-h Lfftwich, 48, 49 ; Slave's life, 48;, 49. Testimony of Lemuel Sapington, 49 ; Naljedaess of slaves, 49 ; Traffic in slaves, 49. Testimony of Mrs. Lowry, 50 ; Long, a professor of religion killed three men, 50 ; Salt water applied to wounds to keep them from putrefaction, 50. Testimony of Willi.4.m C. Gildersleeve, 50 ; Acts of cruelty, 50. Testimony of Hiram White, 51 ; Woman with a child chained to her neck, 51 ; Amalgamation, and mulatto children, 51. Testimony of John M. Nelson, 51 ; Rev. Conrad Speece influenced Alexander Nelson when dying not to emancipate his slaves, 5S ; George Bourne opposed slavery in 1810, 52. Testimony of Angelina Grimke Weld, 52 ; House- servants, 52 ; Slave-driving female professors of religion at Charleston, S. C, 53 ; Whipping women and prayer in the same room, 53 ; Tread-mills, 53 ; Slavcholding religion, 54 ; Slave-driving mistress prayed for the divine blessing upon her whipping of an aged woman, 54 ; Girl killed with impunity, 54 ; Jewish law, 54 ; Barbarities, 54 ; Jledical attendance upon slaves, 55 ; Young man beaten to epilepsy and insanity, 55 ; Mistresses flog their slaves, 55 ; Blood- bought luxuries, 55 ; Borrowing of slaves, 55 ; Meals of slaves, 55 ; All comfort of slaves disregarded, 56 ; Severance of companion lovers, 56 ; Separation of parents and children, 56 ; Slave espionage, 57 ; SutTerings of slaves, 57 ; llorrori of slavery indescribable, 50. Testimony of Cruelty inflicted upon slaves, -57 ; Colonization Society, 60 ; Emancipation Society of North Carolina, 60 ; Kentucky, 61. PUNISHMENTS, 62-72 ; Floggings, 62; Witnesses and Testimony, 62, 63. Slave Driving, 69 ; Droves of slaves, 70. Cruelty to Slave.?, 70 ; Slaves like Stock without a shelter, 71 ; " SLx pound paddle," 71. Tortures of slaves. Iron collars, chains, fetters, and hand-cuffs, 72-76 : Advertisements for fugitive slaves, 73 : Testimony, 74, 75 : Iron head-frame, 76 : Chain coffles, 76 ; Droves of ' human cattle,' 76: Washington, the Na- tional s'ave market, 76: Testimony of James K. Pauld- ing, Secretary of the Navy ; Literary fraud and pretaideii prophecy by Mr. Paulding, 77 : Brandings, Maimings, and Gun-shot wounds, 77 : Witnesses and Testimony, 77-82 Mr. Sevier, senator of the U. S. 79: Judge Hitchcock, ot Mobile, 79 : Commendable fidelity to truth in tlie advertisa ments of slaveholders, 82 : Thomas Aylethorpe cut off a slave's ear, and sent it to Lewis Tappan, 93 : Advertise mants for runaway slaves witli their teeth muti- lated, 83, 84 ; Excessive cruelty to slaves, 85 : Slaveij burned alive, 86 : Mr. Turner, a slave-butcher, 87 Slaves roasted and flogged, 87: Cruelties common, 83 Fugitive slaves, 88 : Slaves forced to eat tobacco worms, 88: Baptist Christians escaping from slavery, 83; Chrits- tian whipped for praying, 83 : James K. Paulding's tes5; mony, 8D ; Slave driven to death, 89 ; Coroner's inquest oi Harney's murdered female slave, 80: Man-stcalin;^ couraged by law, 90 : Trial for a murdered slave, 90 : Fe male slave whipped to death, and during the torture deliv- ered of a dead infant. 90 : Slaves murdered, 90, 91, 92 Slave driven to death, 92 : Slaves killed with impunity 93 : George, a slave, chopped piece-meal, and burnt bj Lilburn Lewis, 92 ; Retributive- ju.stiee in the awful deatl of Lilburu Lewis, 94 : Trial of Ishain Lewis, a slave mm derer. 91. VI Contents. Personal Narratives-— Part hi. Paoe 94-109. Narrative of Rev. Francis Hawley, 94 ; Plantations, 94 ; Overseers, 93 ; No appeal from Overseers to Masters, 95. Clothing, 95 ; Nudity of slaves, 95. Work, 95 ; Cottoii-picking, 96 ; Mothers of slaves, 96 ; Presbyterian minister killed his slave, 96 ; Methodist co- lored preacher hiin";, 90 ; Licentiousness, 97 ; Slave-traffic, 97 ; Night in a Slaveholder's house, 97 ; Twelve slaves murdered, 97 ; Slave driving Baptist preachers, 97 ; Hunt- iiiR of runaways slaves, 97 ; Amalgamation, 97. Testimony of Reuben C. Macy, and Richard Macy, 98. Whipping of slaves, 98, 99. Testimony of Eleazer Powel, 99 ; Overseer of Hinds Stuart, shot a slave for opposing the torture of his female companion, 100. TESTiiMONY OF Rev. William Scalks, 100. Thfce slaves murdered with impunity, 100 ; Separation of lovers, par- ents, and children, 101. Testimony of Jos. Idk, 101. Mrs. T. a Presbyterian kind woman- killer, 101; Female slave whipped to death, 101; Food, 101 ; Nakedness of slaves, 101 ; Old man flogged after praying for his tyrant, 101 ; Slave-huts not as comfort- able as pig- sties, 101. Testimony of Rev. Phineas Smith, 101. Texas, 102 ; Suit for the value of slave ' property,' 102; Anson Jones, Ambassador from Texas, 102; No trial or punishment for the murder of slaves, 102 ; Slave-Iiunthig in Texas, 102; Suffering drives the slaves to despair and suicide, 102. Testimony OF Phil'n Bliss, 102. Ignorance of northern citizens respecting slavery, 102,Betting upon crops, 103 ; E.x- tcnt and cruelty ofthe punishment of slaves, 103; Slavehold- ers excuse their cruelties by the example of Preachers, and professorsof religion, and Northern citizens, 104 ; Novel torture, eulogized by a professor of religion, 104 ; Whips as common as the plough, 104 ; I^adies use cowliides, with shovel and tonjs, 104. Testimony of Rev. Wm. A. Chapin, 105. Slave-labor, 105; Starvation of slaves, 105 ; Slaves lacerated, without clothing, and vi'ithout food, 105. Testimony of T. M. Macy, 105. Cotton plantations on St. Simon's Island, 105 ; Cultivntion of rice, 106 ; No time for relaxation, 106; Sabbath a nominal rest, 100; Clothing, 100; Flogging, 106. Testimony of F. C. Macy, 106. Slave cabins, 106 ; Food, 106 ; Whipping every day, 100 ; Treatment of slaves as brutes, 106 ; Slave-boys fight for slaveliolder's amUSemenli 107 ; Amalgamation commo'i, 107. Testimony of a Clergyman, 107. Natchez, 107 ; ' Lie down,' for whipping, 107 ; Slave-hunting, 108 ; ' Ball and chain' men, 108; Whipping at the same time, on three plantations, 108 ; Hours of Labor, 108; Christians slave- lionting, 108 ; Many runaway slaves annually shot, 108 ; Slaves in the stocks, 108 ; Slave-branding, 108. OoNDiTioN of Slaves, 108. Slavery is unmixed cruelty, 108; Fear the only motive of slaves, 109; Pain is the lueans, not the end of slave-driving, 109 ; Characters of Slave drivers and Overseers, brutal, sensual, and violent, 109 ; Ownership of human beings utterly destroys their comfort, 109. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED :— Page I'JO— 210. I. Such cruelties are incredible, 110. Slaves deemed to '>e working animals, or merchandize ; and called ' Stock,' ' Increase,' ' Breeders,' ' Drivers,' ' Propotty,' ' Human cattle,' 110 ; Testimony of Thomas Jefferson, 110 ; Slaves worse treated than quadrupeds. 111, 112 ; Contrast between the usage of slaves and animals, 112 ; Testimony, 112! Northern incredulity discreditable to consistency, 112; Religious persecutions, 113 ; Recent ' Lynch ings,' and Riots, in the United States, 113 ; Many outrageous Fekinies perpe- trated with impunity, 113 ; Large faith of the objectors who ' can't believe,' 114 ; 'Doe faces,' and' Dough faces,' 114 ; Slave-drivers acknowledge their own enormities, 111; Slave plantations in Alabama. Louisiana, and Mississippi, second only to hell,' 1 14 ; Legislature of North Carolina, 115; Incredulity discreditable to intelligence, 115; Abus^, of power in the state, and chiu-ches. 115 ; Legal restraints, 116 ; American slaveholders possess absolute power, 116; Slaves deprived of the safeguards of law,116; Mutual aversion be- tween the oppressor and the slave, 116 ; Cruelty the product of arbitrary power, 117 ; Testimony of Thomas Jefferson, 117 ; Judge Tucker, 117 ; Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina, and Georgia, 117 ; General William H. Harrison, 117; President Edwards, 118; Montesquieu, 118; Wilber- force, 118 ; Whitbread, 118 ; Characters, 118, 121. Objection II. — " Slaveholders protest that they treat their slaves well.'' 121 Not testimony but opinion, 122; 'Good treatment' of slaves,' 123 ; Novel form of cruelty, 125 . Objection III — " Slaveholders are proverbial for their kindness, and generosity, 125 ; Hospitality and benevolence contrasted, 125,120; Slaveholders in Congress, respecting Texas and Hayti, 126 ; ' Fictitious kindness and hospitality,' 128. Objection IV. — " Northern visitors at the south testify that tlie slaves are not cruelly treated," 128. Testimony, 128,129; ' Gubner poisened,' 129 ; Fiela-haiids, 130; Par- lor slaves, 130 ; Chief Justice Durell, 131. Objection V.—" It is for the interest of the masters to treat their slaves well," 132 ; Testunony, 133. Rev. X. N Maffitt, 134 ; Masters interest to treat cruelly the great body ofthe slaves, 134,138 ; Various classes of slaves, 135, 130 ; Hired slaves, 130 ; Advertisements, 130, 137. Objection VI: — " Slaves multiply ; a proof tliat they are not inhumanly treated, and are in a comfortable condition, 139. Testimony, 139; Martin VanBuren, 139; Foreign slave trade, 139 ; ' Beware of Kidnappers,' 140 ; ' Citizens sold as slaves,' 141 ; Kidnapping at New Orleans, 141 ; Slave breeders, 142. Objection VII. — " Public opinion is a protection to the slave, 143." Decision of the Supreme Court of Noitli and South Carolina, 143; ' Protection of slaves,' 143; Mischiev- ous effects of ' public opinion' concerning slavery, 114 ; Laws of different states, 144 ; Heart of slaveholders, 145 ; Reasons for enacthig the laws concerning cruelties to slaves, 147 ; ' Moderate correction,' 148 ; Hypocrisy and malignity of slave laws, 148 ; Testimony of slaves excluded, 149 ; Capital crimes for slaves, 149 ; ' Slaveholding brutidi- ty,' worse tha-i that of Caligula, 149 ; Public opinion destroys fundamental rights, 150 ; Character of slaveholder.s' adver- tisements, l.')2 ; Public opinion is diabolical, 152, 154 ; Brutal indecency, 154 ; Murder of slaves by law, 155, 156 ; Judge Lawless, 157; Slave-hunting, 159, 160; Healih of slaves, 161 ; Acclimation of slaves, 162 ; Liberty of Slaves 162 ; Kidnapping of free citizens, 162 ; Law of Louisiana, 163 ; Friends', memorial, 164 ; Domestic slavery, 164 ; Ad- vertisements, 164, 167 ; Childhood,old age, 167; Inhiimani ty, 169; Butchering dead slaves, 169; South Carolina Medical college, 169 ; Charleston Medical Intirmaiy, 172 ; Advertisements, 172, 173 ; Slave murders, 173 ; John Ran- dolph, 173 ; Charleston slave auctions, 174 ; ' Never lose a day's work,' 174 ; Stocks, 175 ; Slave-breeding, 175 ; Lynch law, 175 ; Slaves murdered,176 ; Slavery among Christians, 176, 180 ; Licentiousness encouraged by preachers, 180 ; 'Fine old preacher who dealt in slaves,' 180 : Cruelty to slaves by professors of religion, 181 ; Slave-breeding, 182; Daniel O'Connel, and Andrew Stevenson, 182 ; Virginia a negro raishig menagerie, 182 • Legislature of Virginia, 132; Colonization Society,183 ; Inter-state slave traffic, 1S4 ; Bat- tles in Congress, 184; Duelling, 185; Cock-fighting, 186; Horse-racing, 186 ; Ignorance of slaveholders, 187; 'Slave- holding civilization, and morahty,' 188 ; Arkansas, 188 ; Slave driving ruffians, 189, 190 ; Missouri, 191 : Alabama, 192 ; Butcheriesin Mississippi, 194 ; Louisiana, 198; Ten- nessee, 200 ; Fatal Affray in Colum'iia, 201 ; Presentment ofthe Grand Jury of Shelby County, 202 ; Testimony of Bishop Smith of Kentucky, 204, 206. Atlantic Slaveholding Region, 206. Georgia, 206; North Carolina, 209 ; Trading with Negroes, 209 ; Conclu- sion, 210. INTRODUCTION. Reader, you are empannelled as a juror to try a plain case and bring in an honest verdict. The question at issue is not one of law, but of fact — " What is , the actual condition of the slaves in the United States ?" A plainer case never went to a jury. Look at it. Twenty- seven HUNDRED THOUSAND PERSONS in this Coun- try, men, women, and children, are in slavery. Is slavery, as a condition for human beings, good, bad, or indifferent? We submit the question without argument. You have common sense, and conscieace, and a human heart ; — pro- nounce upon it. You have a wife, or a husband, a child, a father, a mother, a brother or a sister — make the case your own, make it theirf, and bring in your verdict. The case of Human Rights against Slavery has been adjudicated in the court of conscience times innumerable. The same verdict has always been rendered — " Guil- ty;" the same sentence has always been pro- nounced, " Let it be accursed ;" and human na- ture, with her million echoes, has rung it round the world in every language under heaven, " Let it be accursed. Let it be accursed." His heart is false to human nature, who will not say "Amen." There is not a man on earth who does not be- lieve that slavery is a curse. Human beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to herself. She has uttered her testimony against slavery with a shriek ever since the mon- ster was begotten ; and till it perishes amidst the execrations of the universe, she will traverse the world on its track, dealing her bolts upon its head, and dashing against it her condemning brand. We repeat it, every man knows that slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart. Try him ; clank the chains in his ears, and tell him they are for kim. Give him an hour to prepare his wife and children for a life of slavery. Bid him make haste and get ready their necks for the yoke, and their wrists for the coffle chains, then look at his pale hps and trembling knees, and you have nature^s testimony against slavery. Two millions seven hundred thousand persons in these States are in this condition. They were made slaves and are held such by force, and by being put in fear, and this for no crime ! Reader, what have you to say of such treatment ? Is it right, just, benevolent ? Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the field, and make you work without pay as long as you live, would that be justice and kindness, or monstrous injustice and cruelty ? Now, every body knows that the slaveholders do these things to the slaves every day, and yet it is stoutly af- firmed that they treat them well and kindly, and that their tender regard for their slaves restrains tlie masters from inflicting cruelties upon them. We shall go into no metaphysics to show the absurdity of this pretence. The man who rohs you every day, is, forsooth, quite too tender- hearted ever to cufF or kick you ! True, he can snatch your money, but he docs it gently lest he should hurt you. He can empty your pockets without qualms, but if your stomach is empty, it cuts him to the quick. He can make you work a life time without pay, but loves you too well to let you go hungry. He fleeces you of your rights with a relish, but is shocked if you work bareheaded in summer, or in winter without warm stockings. He can make you go without your liberty, but never without a shirt. He san crush, in you, all hope of bettering your condition, by vowing that you shall die his slave, but though he can coolly torture your feeUngs, he is too com- passionate to lacerate your back — he can break your heart, but he is very tender of your skin. He can strip you of all protection and thus ex- pose you to all outrages, but if you arc exposed to the weather, half clad and half sheltered, how yearn his tender bowels ! Wliat ! slaveholders talk of treating men well, and yet not only rob them of all they get, and as fast as they get if, but rob them of themselves, also ; their very hands and feet, all their muscles, and limbs, and senses, their bodies and minds, their time and liberty and earnings, their free speech and rights of con- 8 Introduction. science, their right to acquire knowledge, and propert}', and reputation ; — and yet they, who plunder them of all these, would fain make us bcheve that their soft hearts ooze out so lovingly toward their slaves that they always keep them well lioused and well clad, never pusli them too liard m the field, never make their dear backs smart, nor let their dear stomachs get empty. But there is no end to these absurdities. Are slaveholders dunces, or do they take all tlie rest of the world to be, that they think to bandage our eyes with such thin gauzes? Protesting their kind regard for those whom they hourly plunder of all they have and all they get I What ! when they have seized their victims, and annihilated all their rights, still claim to be tlic special guardians of their happi- ness ! Plunderers of their libcrt}^, yet the careful suppliers of their wants ? Robbers of their earn- ings, yet watchful sentinels round their interests, and kind providers of their comforts ? Filching all their time, yet granting generous donations for rest and sleep ? Stealing the use of their muscles, 3'et thoughtful of their ease ? Putting tliem under rfriu- ers, yet careful that they arc not hard-pushed ? Too humane forsooth to stint the stomachs of their slaves, yet force their minds to starve, and brandish over them pains and penalties, if they dare to reach forth for the smallest crumb of knowledge, even a letter of the alphabet ! It is no marvel that slaveholders arc always talking of their kind treatment of their slaves. The only marvel is, that men of sense can be gulled by such professions. Despots alwaj's insist tliat thej' are merciful. The greatest tyrants that ever dripped with blood have assumed the titles of "most gracious," "most clement," "most merciful," &.c., and have ordered their crouching vassals to accost them thus. When did not vice lay claim to those virtues which are the opposites of its habitual crimes ? The guilty, according to their own showing, are alwaj^s innocent, and cowards brave, and drunkards sober, and harlots chaste, and pickpockets honest to a fault. Every body understands this. When a man's tongue grows thick, and he begins to hiccough and walk cross-legged, we expect him, as a matter of coiu-se, to protest that he is not drunk ; so when a man is always singing the praises of his own honesty, we instinctively watch his movements and look out for our pocket-books. Whoever is simple enough to be hoaxed by such professions, should never be trusted in the streets without somebody to take care of him. Human nature works out in slave- holders juet as it docs in other men, and in Ame. rican slaveholders just as in English, French, Turkish, Algerine, Roman and Grecian. The Spartans boasted of their kindneps to their slaves, while they whipped them to death by thousands at the altars of their gods. The Romans lauded their own mild treatment of their bondmen, while they branded their names on their flesh with hot irons, and when old, threw them into their fish ponds, or like Cato " the Just," starved them to death. It is the boast of the Turks that thev treat their slaves as though they were their chil- dren, yet their common name for them is " dogs," and for the merest trifles, their feet are bastina- doed to a jelly, or their heads clipped off with the scimetar. The Portuguese pride themselves on their gentle bearing toward their slaves, yet the streets of Rio Janeiro are filled with naked men and women yoked in pairs to carts and wagons, and whipped by drivers like beasts of burden. Slaveholders, the world over, have sung the praises of their tender mercies towards their slaves. Even the wretches that plied the African slave trade, tried to rebut Clarkson's proofs of their cruelties, by speeches, affidavits, and pub- lished pamphlets, setting forth the accommoda- tions of the " middle passage," and their kind attentions to the comfort of those whom they had stolen from their homes, and kept stowed away under hatches, during a voyage of four thousand miles. So, according to the testimony of the autocrat of the Russias, he exercises great clemency towards the Poles, though he exiles them by thousands to the snows of Siberia, and tramples them down by millions, at home. Who discredits the atrocities perpetrated by Ovando in Hispaniola, Pizarro in Peru, and Cortez in Mexi- co, — because they filled the ears of the Spanisli Court with protestations of their benignant rule ? While they were yoking the enslaved natives like beasts to the draught, working them to deatli by thousands in their mines, hunting them with bloodhounds, torturing them on racks, and broiling them on beds of coals, their representa- tions to the mother country teemed with eulogies of their parental sway ! The bloody atrocities of Philip II., in the expulsion of his Moorish sub- jects, are matters of imperishable history. Who disbelieves or doxibts them ? And yet his cour- tiers magnified his virtues and chanted his cle- mency and his mercy, while the wail of a million victims, smitten down by a tempest of fire and slaughter let loose at his bidding, rose above the Tc Deums that thundered from all Spain's cathe- drals. When Louis XIV. revoked the edict of Nantz, and proclaimed two millions of his sub- jects free plunder for persecution, — when from the English channel to the Pj-rennees the man- gled bodies of the Protestants were dragged on reeking hurdles by a shouting populace, he claim- ed to be " the father of his people," and wrote himself " His most Christian Majesty." But we will not anticipate topics, the full dis- cussion of which more naturally follows than Introduction. precedes the inquiry into the actual condition and treatment of slaves in the United States. As slaveholders and their apologists are volun- teer witnesses in their own cause, and are flood- ing the world with testimony that their slaves are kindly treated ; that they are well fed, well clothed, well housed, well lodged, moderately worked, and bountifully provided with all things needful for their comfort, we propose — first, to dis- prove their assertions by the teettmony of a multi- tude of impartial witnesses, and then to put slave- holders themselves through a course of cross-ques- tioning which shall draw their condemnation out of their own mouths. We will prove that the slaves in the United States are treated with barbarous in- humanity ; that they are overworked, underfed, wretchedly clad and lodged, and have insuSicient sleep ; that they are often made to wear round their necks iron • collars armed with prongs, to drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while working in the field, and to wear yokes, and bells, and iron horns ; that they are often kept confined in the stocks day and night for weeks together, made to wear gags in their mouths for hours or days, have some of their front teeth torn out or broken off, that they may be easily detected when they rim away ; that they arc frequently flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper rubbed into their lacerated flesh, and hot brine, spirits of turpentine, &c., poured over the gashes to increase the torture ; that they are often strip- ped naked, their backs and limbs cut with knives, bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of blows with the paddle, and terribly torn by the claws of cats, drawn over them by tlicir tormen- tors; that they are often hunted with bloodhounds and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs ; that they are often suspended by the arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and when revived by restoratives, beaten again till they faint, and sometimes till they die ; that their ears are often cut off", their eyes knocked out, their bones broken, their flvish branded with red hot irons ; that they are maimed, mutilated and burned to death over slow lircf-. All tlicse things, and more, and worse, we shall prove. Reader, we know whereof we affirm, we have weighed it well; more and worse WE WILL PROVE. Mark these words, and read on ; we will estabhsh all these facts by the testimon}' of scores and hun- dreds of eye witnessses, by the testimony of slave- holders in all parts of the slave states, byslavchold- ing members of Congress and of state legisla- tures, by ambassadors to foreign courts, by judges, by doctors of divinity, and clergy- men of all denominations, by merchants, mechanics, lawyers and physicians, by presi- dents and professors in colleges and profes- sional seminaries, by planters, o^'"'secrs and drivers. We shall show, not merely that such deeds are committed, but that they are frequent ; not done in corners, but before the sun ; not in one of the slave states, but in all of them ; not perpe- trated by brutal overseers and drivers merely, but by magistrates, by legislators, by professors of religion, by preachers of the gospel, by governors of states, by " gentlemen of property and stand- ing," and by delicate females moving in the " highest circles of society." We know, full well, the outcry that wOl be made by multitudes, at these declarations ; the multiform cavils, the flat denials, the charges of " exaggeration" and " falsehood" so often bandied, the sneers of af fected contempt at the credulity that can believe such things, and the rage and imprecations against those who give them currency. We know, too, the threadbare sophistries by whicii slaveholders and their apologists seek to evade such testimony. If they admit that such deeds are committed, they tell us that the}' are exceed- ingly rare, and therefore furnish no grounds for judging of the general treatment of slaves ; that occasionally a brutal wretch in the free states barbarously butchers his wife, but that no one tliinks of inferring from that, the general treat- ment of wives at the North and West. They tell us, also, that the slaveholders of the South are provertiially hospitable, kind, and generous, and it is incredible that they can per- petrate such enormities upon human beings ; fur- ther, that it is absurd to suppose that the}' would thus injure their own property, that self interest would prompt them to treat their slaves with kindness, as none but fools and madmen wantonly destroy their own property ; further, that Northern visitors at the South come back testifying to the kind treatment of tlie slaves, and that the slaves themselves corroborate such representations. All these pleas, and scores of others, are bruited in every corner of the free States; and wiio that hath eyes to see, has not sickened at tTie blind- ness that saw not, at the palsy of heart that felt not, or at the cowardice and sycophancy that dared not expose such shallow fallacies. We are not to be turned from our purpose by such vapid bab- blings. In their appropriate places, we propose to consider these objections and various others, and to show their emptiness and folly. The foregoing declarations touching the inflic- tions upon slaves, are not hap-hazard assertions, nor the exaggerations of fiction conjured up to carry a point ; nor are they the rhapsodies of en- thusiasm, nor crude conclusions, jumped at by hasty and imperfect investigation, nor the aim- less outpourings either of sympathy or poetry ; but they are proclamations of deliberate, well- weighed convictions, produced by accumulations of proof, by affirmations and affidavits, by writ- 10 Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins. ten testimonies and statements of a cloud of wit- nesses who speak what tliey know and testify what they have seen, and all these impre^ably fortified by proofs innumerable, in the relation of the slaveholder to his slave, the nature of arbitrary power, and the nature and history of man. Of the witnesses whose testimony is embodied in the following pages, a majority are slavehold- ers, many of the remainder have been slaveholders, but now reside in free States. Another class whose testimony will be given, consists of those who have furnished the results of their own observation during periods of resi- dence and travel in the slave States. We will first present the reader with a few Per- sonal Narratives furnished by individuals, na- tives of slave states and others, embodying, in the main, the results of their own observation in the midst of slavery — facts and scenes of which they were eye-witnesses. In the next place, to give the reader as clear and definite a view of the actual condition of slaves as possible, we propose to make specific points, to pass in review the various particulars in the slave's condition, simply presentinsT sufii- cicnt testimony under each head to settle the question in every candid mind. The examination will be conducted by stating distinct propositions, and in the following order of topics. 1. The food of the slaves, the kinds, quality and quantity, also, the number and time of meals EACH DAY, &C. 2. Their hours of labor and rest. 3. Their clothing. 4. Their dwellings. 5. Their privations and inflictions. 6. In conclusion, a variety of objections and arguments will be considered which are used by the advocates of slavery to set aside the force of testimony, and to show that the slaves are kindly treated. Between the larger divisions of the work, brief personal narratives will be inserted, containing a mass of facts and testimony, both general and specific. PERSONAL NARRATIVES. Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, of Waterford, New London Co., Connecticut, has furnished the Ex- ecutive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with the following statements rela- tive to the condition and treatment of slaves, in the south eastern part of North Carolina. Most of the facts related by Mr. Caulkins fell under his personal observation. The air of candor and honesty that pervades the naiTative, the manner in which Mr. C. has drawn it up, the good sense, just views, conscience and heart which it exhibits, are sufficient of themselves to commend it to all who have ears to hear. The Committee have no personal acquaintance with Mr. Caulkins, but they have ample testimo- nials from the most respectable sources ; all of wliich represent him to be a man whose long es- tablished character for sterling integrity, sound moral principle and piety, have secured for him the uniform respect and confidence of those who know him. Without further preface the following testimo- nials are submitted to the reader. " This may certify, that we the subscribers have lived for a number of years past in tlie neighborliood witli Mr. Nehcmiali Caulkins, and liave no hesitation in stating that we considfr him a man of hijh rcspt-ctabiiily and that his character for tiutli and veracity is uiiimpiarliablc." Peter C'omstock. I). G. Oris. A. F. Perkins, M.D. Piiiup Moroan. Isaac Beebe. James Rogers, M. D." LODOWICK Bebbb. ITattrford, Ct., Jan. Kth, 1839. Mr. Comstock is a Justice of the Peace. Mr. L. Becbe is the Town Clerk of Waterford. Mr. J. Becbe is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Otis is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. Morgan is a Justice of the Peace, and Messrs. Perkins and Rogers are designated by their titles. All those gentlemen are citizens of Waterford, Connecticut. " To whom it may concern. This may certify that Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, of Wateiford, in New London County, is a near neighbor to the subscriber, and has been for many years. I do consider liim a man of itnquestionahle veracity and certify that he is so considered by people to wliom he is personally known. Edward K. Warren." Jan. 15th, 1839. Mr. Warren is a Commissioner (Associate Judge) of the County Court, for New London County. " This may certify that Mr. Neheniiali Caulkins, of the town of Waterford, County of New London, and State of Connecticut, is a member of the first Baptist Chuich in said Waterford, is in good standing, and is esteemed by us a inaTi of truth and veracity. Francis Darrow, Pastorof said Church." Waterford, Jan. IGtIt, 1839. " This may certify that Nehemiah Caulkins, of Water- ford, lives near me, and I always esteemed liini, and believe hiin to be a man of truth .ind veracity. Elisha Bbckwith." Jan. ^Gtk, 1839. Mr. Beckwith is a Justice of the Peace, a Post Master, and a Deacon of the Baptist Ciuirch. Mr. Dwight P. .lanes, a member of the Second Congregational Church in the city of New Lon- don, in a recent letter, says ; Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins. 11 " Mr. Caulkins is a member of the Baptist Church m Watcrford, and in every respect a very worthy citizen. I have labored with him in the Sabbath School, and know him to be a man of active piety. The most entire confidence may be placed in the truth of his statements. Where he is known, no one will call them in question." We close these testimonials with an extract, of a letter from William Bolles, Esq., a well known and respected citizen of New London, Ct. " Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins resides in t?ie town of Watcrford, about si.x miles from this City. His opportunities to acquire exact knowledge in relation to Slavery, in that section of our country. to which his narrative is confined, have been very great. He is a carpenter, and was employed principally on the plantations, working at his trade, being thus almost constantly in the com. pany of the slaves as well as of their masters. His full heart readily responded to the call, [for in- formation relative to slavery,] for, as he expressed it, he had long desired that others might know what he had seen, being confident that a general knowledge of facts as they exist, would greatly promote the overthrow of the system. He is a man of undoubted character ; and where known, his statements need no corroboration. Yours, &c. William Bolles. NARRATIVE OF MR. CAULKINS. I feel it my duty to tell some things that I know about slavery, in order, if possible, to awak- en more feeling at the North in behalf of the slave. The treatment of the slaves on the plan- tations where I had the greatest opportunity of getting knowledge, was not so bad as that on some neighboring estates, where the owners were noted for their cruelty. There were, how- ever, other estates in the vicinity, where the treatment was better; the slaves were better clothed and fed, were not worked so hard, and more attention was paid to their quarters. The scenes that I have witnessed are enough to harrow up the soul ; but could the slave be permitted to tell the story of his sufferings, which no white man, not linked with slavery, is allowed to know, the land would vomit out the horrible system, slaveholders and all, if they would not unclinch their grasp upon their defenceless vic- tims. I spent eleven winters, between the years 1824 and 1835, in the state of North Carolina, mostly in the vicinity of Wilmington ; and four out of the eleven on the estate of Mr. John Swan, five or six miles from that place. There were on his plantation about seventy slaves, male and female : some were married, and others lived together as man and wife, without even a mock ceremony. With their owners generally, it is a matter of indifference ; the marriage of slaves not being recognized by the slave code. The slaves, however, think much of being mar- ried by a clergyman. Tlie cabins or huts of the slaves were small, and were built principally by the slaves them- eelves, as they could find time on Sundays and moonlight nights ; they went into the swamps, cut the logs, backed or hauled them to the quarters, and put up their cabins. When I first knew Mr. Swan's plantation, his overseer was a man who had been a Methodist minister. He treated the slaves with great cruelty. His reason for leaving the ministry and becoming an overseer, as I was informed, was this : his wife died, at which providence he was so enraged, that he swore he wouM not preach for the Lord another day. This man continued on the plantation about three years ; at the close of which, on settlement of accounts, Mr. Swan owed him about $400, for which he turned him out a negro woman, and about twen- ty acres of land. He built a log hut, and took the woman to live with him ; since which, I have been at his hut, and seen fom- or five mu- latto children. He has been appointed a. justice of the peace, and his place as overseer was after- wards occupied by a Mr. Galloway. It is customary in that part of the country, to let the hogs run in the woods. On one occasion a slave caught a pig about two months old, vi'hich he carried to his quarters. The overseer, getting information of the fact, went to the field where he was at work, and ordered him to come to him. The slave at once suspected it was some- thing about the pig, and fearing punishment, dropped his hoe and ran for the woods. He had got but a few rods, when the overseer raised his gun, loaded with duck shot, and brought him down. It is a common practice for overseers to go into the field armed with a gun or pistols, and sometimes both. He was taken up by the slaves and carried to the plantation hospital, and the physician sent for. A ])hysician was employ- ed by the year to take care of the sick or wound, ed slaves. In about six weeks this slave got bet- ter, and was able to come out of the hospital. He came to the mill where I was at work, and asked me to examine his body, which I did, and counted twenty-six duck shot still remaining in his flesh, though the doctor had removed a num- ber while he was laid up. There was a slave on Mr. Swan's plantation, by the name of Harry, who, during the absence of his master, ran away and secreted himself in the woods. This the slaves sometimes do, when the master is absent for several weeks, to escape the cruel treatment of the overseer. It is com- mon for them to make preparations, by secreting a mortar, a hatchet, some cooking utensils, and whatever things they can get that will enable them to live while they are in the woods or swamps. Harry staid about three months, and lived by robbing the rice grounds, and by such other means as came in his way. The slaves generally know where the runaway is secreted, and visit him at night and on Sundays. On the return of his master, some of the slaves were sent for Harry. Wlien he came homo lie was seized and confined in the stocks. The stocks were built in the barn, and consisted of two heavy pieces of timber, ten or more feet in length, and about seven inches wide ; tlie lower one, on 12 Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins. the floor, has a number of holes or places cut in it, for the ancles ; the upper piece, being of the same dimensions, is fastened at one end by a hinge, and is brought down after the ancles arc l>laced in Ihc holes, and secured by a clasp and padlock at the other end. In this manner the person is left to sit on the floor. Harry was kept in the stocks day and night for a week, and flogged evert/ morning. After this, he was taken out one morning, a log chain fastened around his neck, the two ends dragging on the ground, and he sent to the field, to do his task with the other slaves. At night he was again put in the stocks, in the morning he was sent to the field in the same manner, and thus dragged out another week. The overseer was a very miserly fellow, and restricted his wife in what are considered the comforts of life — such as tea, sugar, &c. To make up for this, she set her wits to work, and, by the help of a slave, named Joe, used to take from the plantation whatever she could conveniently, and watch her opportunity during her husband's absence, and send Joe to sell them and buy for her such things as she directed. Once when her husband was away, she told Joe to kill and dress one of the pigs, sell it, and get her some tea, sugar, &.C. Joe did as he was bid, and she gave hirn the ofFal for his services. When Galloway returned, not suspecting his wife, he asked her if she knew what had become of his pig. She told him she suspected one of the slaves, naming him, had stolen it, for she had heard a pig squeal the evening before. The overseer called the slave up, and charged him with the theft. He denied it, and said he knew nothing about it. The over- seer still charged him with it, and told him he would give him one week to think of it, and if he did not confess the theft, or find out who did steal the pig, he would flog every negro on the planta- tion ; before the week was up it was ascertained that Joe had killed the pig. He was called up and questioned, and admitted that he had done so, and told the overseer that he did it by the or- der of Mrs. Galloway, and that she directed him to buy some sugar, &c. with the money. Mrs. Galloway-.gave Joe the lie ; and he was terribly flogged. Joe told me he had been several times to the smoke-house with Mrs. G, and taken hams and sold them, which her husband told me he supposed were stolen by the negroes on a neigh- boring plantation. Mr. Swan, hearing of the cir- cumstajice, told me he believed Joe's story, but that his statement would not be taken as proof; and if every slave on the plantation told the same f'lory it could not be received as evidence against a white person. To show the manner in which old and worn- out slaves are sometimes treated, I will state a fact Galloway owned a man about seventy vears of age. The old man was sick and went to his hut ; laid himself down on some straw with his feet to the fire, covered by a piece of an old hlanket, and there lay four or five days, groaning In great distress, without any attention being paid him by his master, until death ended his miseries ; lie was then taken out and buried with as little ceremony and respect as would be paid 1o a brute. There is a practice prevalent among the plant- ers, of letting a negro oft' from severe and long- continued punishment on account of the mterces. sion of some white person, who pleads in liis be- half, that he believes the negro will behave better ; that he promises well, and he believes he will keep his promise, &c. The planters sometimes get tired of punishing a negro, and, wanting his services in the field, they get some white person to come, and, in the presence of the slave, inter- cede for him. At one time a negro, named Charles, was confined in the stocks in the build, ing where I was at work, and had been severely whipped several times. He begged me to inter- cede for him and try to get him released. I told him I would ; and when his master came in to whip him again, I went up to him and told him I had been talking with Charles, and he had pro- mised to behave better, &c., and requested him not to punish him any more, but to let him go. Ho then said to Charles, " As Mr. Caulkins has been pleading for you, I will let you go on his accoimt ;" and accordingly released him. Women are generally shown some little indul- gence for three or four weeks previous to child- birth ; they are at such times not often punished if they do not finish the task assigned them ; it is, in some cases, passed over with a severe repri- mand, and sometimes without any notice being taken of it. They are generally allowed four weeks after the birth of a child, before they are compelled to go into the field, they then take the child with them, attended sometimes by a little girl or boy, from the age of four to six, to take care of it while the mother is at work. When there is no child that can be spared, or not young enough for this service, the mother, after nursing, lays it under a tree, or bj' the side of a fence, and goes to her task, returning at stated intervals to nurse it. While I was on this plantation, a little negro girl, six years of age, destroyed the life of a child about two months old, which was left in her care. It seems this little nurse, so called, got tired of her charge and the labor of carrying it to the quarters at night, the mother being obliged to work as long as she could see. One evening she nursed the infant at sunset as usual, and sent it to the quarters. The little girl, on her way home, had to cross a run, or brook, which led down into the swamp ; when she came to the brook she fol- lowed it into the swamp, thsK took the infant and plunged it head foremost inro the water and mud, wliere it stuck fast ; she there left it and went to the negro quarters. When the mother came in from tlie field, she asked the girl where the child was ; she told her she had brought it home, but did not know where it was ; the overseer was im- mediately informed, search was made, and it was found as above stated, and dead. The little girl was shut up in the barn, and confined there two or three weeks, when a speculator came along and bought her for two hundred dollars. The slaves are obliged to work from daylight till dark, as long as they can see. When they have tasks assigned, which is often the case, a few of the strongest and most ex;)crt, sometimes finish them before sunset; others will be obliged to work till eight or nine o'clock in the evening. All must finish their tasks or take a flogging. The whip and gun, or pistol, are companions of the overseer ; the former he uses very fjequently upon the negroes, during their hours of labor, Personal Narratives— Mr. Caulkins. 13 without regard to age or sex. Scarcely a day passed while I was on the plantation, in which some of the slaves were not whipped ; I do not mean that they were struck a few blows merely, but had a set flogging. The same labor is commonly assigned to men and women, — such as digging ditches in the rice marshes, clearing up land, chopping cord-wood, threshing, &c. I have known the women go into the barn as soon as they could see in the morning, and vi'ork as late as they could see at night, threshing rice with the flail, (they now have a threshing machine,) and when they could see to thresh no longer, they had to gather up the rice, carry it up stairs, and de- posit it in the granary. The allowance of clothing on this plantation to each slave, was given out at Christmas for the year, and consisted of one pair of coarse shoes, and enough coarse cloth to make a jacket and trowsers. If the man has a wife she makes it up ; if not, it is made up in the house. The slaves on this plantation, being near Wilmington, procured themselves extra clothing by working Sundays and moonlight nights, cutting cord- wood in the swamps, which they had to back about a quarter of a mile to the river ; they would then get a permit from their master, and taking the wood in their canoes, carry it to Wilmington, and sell it to the vessels, or dispose of it as they best could, and with the money buy an old jacket of the sailors, some coarse cloth for a shirt, &c. They sometimes gather the moss from the trees, which they cleanse and take to market. The women receive their allowance of the same kind of cloth which the men have. This they make into a frock ; if they have any under garments they must procure them for themselves. When the slaves get a permit to leave the plantation, they sometimes make all ring again by singing the fol- lowing significant ditty, which shows that after all there is a flow of spirits in the human breast which for a while, at least, enables them to forget their wretchedness.* Hurra, for good ole Massa, He giv me de pass to go to de city Hurra, for good ole Missis, She bile de pot, and giv me, de licker. Hurra, I'm goin to de city. Kvery Saturday iMght the slaves receive their allowance of provisions, which must last them till the next Saturday night. " Potatoe time," as it is called, begins about the middle of July. The slave may measure for himself, the overseer being present, half a bushel of sweet potatoes, and heap the measure as long as they will lie on ; I have, however, seen the overseer, if he think the negro is getting too many, kick the measure ; and if any fall off, tell him he has got his measure. No salt is furnished them to eat with their pota- toes. When rice or corn is given, they give them a little salt ; sometimes half a pint of molasses is given, but not often. The quantity of rice, which is of the small, broken, unsaleable kind, is * Slaves sometimes sing, and so do convicts in jails under sentence, and both for the same; reason. Their singing proves that they want to be happy not that they are so. It is the means that they use to make tliemselves happy, not the evidence that they are bo already. Sometimes, doubtless, tlie excitement of song whelms their misery in momentary oblivion. He who argues from this that they have no con- scious misery to forget, knows as little of human nature as of slavery.— Editor. one peck. When corn is given them, their allow- ance is the same, and if they get it ground, (Mr. Swan had a mill on his plantation,) they must give one quart for grinding, thus reducing their weekly allowance to seven quarts. When fisji (mullet) were plenty, they were allowed, in addi- tion, one fish. As to meat, they seldom had any. I do not think they had an allowance of meat oftener than once in two or three months, and then the quantity was very small. When they went into the field to work, they took some of the meal or rice and a pot with them ; the pots were given to an old woman, who placed two poles parallel, set the pofs on them, and kindled a fire underneath for cooking ; she took salt with her and seasoned the messes as she thought pro- per. When their breakfast was ready, which was generally about teh or eleven o'clock, they were called from labor, ate, and returned to work ; in the afternoon, dinner was pre])ared in the same way. They had but two meals a day while in the field ; if they wanted more, they cooked for themselves after they returned to their quarters at night. At the time of killing hogs on the plantation, the pluck, entrails, and blood were given to the slaves. When I first went upon Mr. Swan's plantation, I saw a slave in shackles or fetters, which were fastened around each ankle and firmly riveted, connected together by a chain. To the middle of this chain he had fastened a string, so as in a manner to suspend them and keep them from galling his ankles. This slave, whose name was Frank, was an inteUigent, good looking man, and a very good mechanic. There was nothing vi- cious in his character, but he was one of those high-spirited and daring men, that whips, chains, fetters, and all the means of cruelty in the power of slavery, could not subdue. Mr. S. had em- ployed a Mr. Beckwith to repair a boat, and told him Frank was a good mechanic, and he might have his services. Frank was sent for, his shackles still on. Mr. Beckwith set him to work making trunnels, &c. I was employed in putting up a building, and after Mr. Beckwith had done with Frank, he was sent for to assist me. Mr. Swan sent him to a blacksmith's shop and had his shackles cut off with a cold chisel. Frank was afterwards sold to a cotton planter. I will relate one circumstance, which shows the httlc regard that is paid to the feelings of the slave. During the time that Mr. Isaiah.,Rogers was superintending the building of a rice machine, one of the slaves complained of a severe tooth- ache. Swan asked Mr. Rogers to take his ham. mer and knock out the tooth. There was a slave on the plantation named Ben, a waiting man. I occupied a room in the same hut, and had frequent conversations with him. Ben was a kind-hearted man, and, I be- lieve, a Christian ; he would always ask a bless- ing before he sat down to eat, and was in tlie con- stant practice of praying morning and night. — One day when I was at the hut, Ben was sent for to go to the house. Ben sighed deeply and went. He soon returned with a girl about seven- teen years of age, whom one of Mr. Swan's daughters had ordered him to flog. He brought her into tlie room where I was, and told her to stand there wliile he went into the next room : I 14 • Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkina. heard him groan again as he went. While there I heard his voice, and he was engaged in prayer. After a few minutes he returned with a large cow- hide, and stood before the girl, without saying a word. I concluded he wished me to leave the hut, which I did ; and immediately after I heard the girl scream. At every blow she would shriek, " Do, Ben ! oh do, Ben !" This is a common ex- pression of the slaves to the person whipping them : " Do, Massa !" or, " Do, Missus !" After she had gone, I asked Ben what she was whipped for : he told me she had done something to displease her yoimg missus ; and in boxing her ears, and otherwise beating her, she had scratched her finger by a pin in the g'rl's dress, for which she sent her to be flogged. I asked him if he stripped her before flogging ; he said, yes ; he did not like to do this, but was obliged to : he said he was once ordered to whip a wo- man, which he did without stripping her : on her return to the house, her mistress examined her >back ; and not seeing any marks, he was sent for, and asked why he had not whipped her : he re- plied that he had ; she said she saw no marks, and asked him if he liad made her pull her clothes off; lie said. No. She then told him, that when he whipped any more of the women, he must make them strip off" their clothes, as well as the men, and flog Ihcm on their bare backs, or he should be flogged himself. Ben often appeared very gloomy and sad : I have frequently heard him, when in his room, mourning over his condition, and exclaim, " Poor African slave ! Poor African slave !" Whipping was so common an occurrence on this plantation, that it would be too great a repetition to state the many and severe floggings I have seen in- flicted on the slaves. They were flogged for not performing their tasks, for being careless, slow, or not in time, for going to the fire to warm, &c. &c. ; and it often seemed as if occasions were sought as an excuse for punishing them. On one occasion, I heard the overseer charge the hands to be at a certain place the next morn- ing at sun-rise. I was present in the morning, ill company with my brother, when the hands ar- rived. Joe, the slave already spoken of, came running, all out of breath, about five minutes be- hind the time, when, without asking any ques- tions, the overseer told him to take off his jacket. Joe took off his jacket. He had on a piece of a shirt; he told him to take it off: Joe took it off: he then whipped him with a heavy cow-hide full six feet long. At every stroke Joe would spring from the ground, and scream, " O my God I Do, Massa Galloway 1" My brother was so exasper- ated, that he turned to me and said, " If I were Joe, I would kill tlie overseer if 1 knew I should be shot the next minute." In the winter the horn blew at about four in the morning, and all the threshers were required to be at the threshing floor in fifteen minutes after. They had to go about a quarter ol a mile from their quarters. Galloway would stand near the entrance, and all who did not come in time would get a blow over tlie back or head as heavy as he could strike. I have seen him, at such times, follow after them, striking furiously a number of blows, and every one followed by their screams. I have seen the women go to their work after [ such a flogging, crying and taking on most pite- ously. It is almost "impossible to believe that human nature can endure such hardships and sufferings as the slaves have to go through : I have seen them driven into a ditch in a rice swamp to bail out the water, in order to put down a flood-gate, when they had to break the ice, and there stand in the water among the ice until it was bailed out. I have often known the hands to be taken from the field, sent down the river in flats or boats to Wilmington, absent from twenty-four to thirty hours, without any thing to eat, no provision being made for these occasions. Galloway kept medicine on hand, that in case any of the slaves were sick, he could give it to them without sending for the physician ; but he always kept a good look out that they did not sham sickness. When any of them excited his suspicions, he would make them rake the medi- cine in his presence, and would give them a rap on the top of the head, to make them swallow it. A. man once came to him, of whom he said he was suspicious : he gave him two potions of salts, and fastened him in the stocks for the night. His medicine soon began to operate ; and there he lay in all his filth till he was taken out the vext day. One day, Mr. Swan beat a slave severely, for alleged carelessness in letting a boat get adrift. The slave was told to secure the boat : whether he took sufficient means for this purpose I do not know ; he was not allowed to make any defence. Mr. Swan called him up, and asked wh^- he did not secure the boat : he pulled off his hat and be- gan to tell his story. Swan told him he was a damned liar, and commenced beating him over the head with a hickory cane, and the slave re- treated backwards ; Swan followed him about two rods, threshing him over the head with the hickory as he went. As I was one day standing near some slaves who were threshing, the driver, thinking one of the women did not use her flail quick enough, struck her over the head : the end of the whip hit her in the ej'e. I thought at the time he had put it out ; but, after poulticing and doctoring for some days, she recovered. Speaking to him about it, he said that he once struck a slave so as to put one of her eyes entirely out. A patrol is kept upon each estate, and every slave found off the plantation without a pass is whipped on the spot. I knew a slave who started without a pass, one night, for a neighboring plantation, to see his wife : he was caught, tied to a tree, and flogged. He stated his business to the patrol, who was well acquainted with him, but all to no purpose. I spoke to the patrol about it afterwards : he said he knew the negro, that he was a very clever fellow, but he had to whip him ; for, if he let him pass, he must another, &lc. He stated that he had sometimes caught and flog, ged four in a night. In conversation with Mr. Swan about runaway slaves, he stated to me the following fact : — A slave, by the name of Luke, was owned in Wil- mington ; he was sold to a speculator and carried to Georgia. After an absence of about two months the slave returned ; he watched an oppor- tunity to enter his old master's house when the family were absent, no one being at home but a Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins. 15 young waiting man. Luke went to the room where his master kept his arms ; took his gun, with some ammunition, and went into the woods. On the return of his master, the waiting man told him what had been done : this threw him into a violent passion ; he swore he would kill Luke, or lose his own life. He loaded another gun, took two men, and made search, but could not find him : he then advertised him, offering a large re- ward if delivered to him or lodged in jail. His neighbors, however, advised him to offer a reward of two hundred dollars for him dead or alive, which he did. Nothing however was heard of him for some months. Mr. Swan said, one of his slaves ran away, and was gone eight or ten weeks ; on his return he said he had found Luke, and that he had a rifle, two pistols, and a sword. I left the plantation in the spring, and returned to the north ; when I went out again, the next fall, I asked Mr. Swan if any thing had been heard of Luke ; he said he was shot, and related to me the manner of his death, as follows : — Luke went to one of the plantations, and entered a hut for something to eat. Being fatigued, he sat down and fell asleep. There was only a woman in the hut at the time : as soon as she fomid he was asleep, she ran and told her master, who took his rifle, and called two white men on another planta- tion : the three, with their rifles, then went to the hut, and posted themselves in different positions, so that they could watch the door. When Luke waked up he went to the door to look out, and saw them with their rifles, he stepped back and raised his gun to his face. They called to him to surrender ; and stated that they had him in their power, and said he had better give up. He said he would not ; and if they tried to take him, he would kill one of them ; for, if he gave up, he knew they would kill him, and he was determined to sell his life as dear as he could. They told him, if he should shoot one of them, the other two would certainly kill him : he replied, he was determined not to give up, and kept his gun mov- ing from one to the other ; and while his rifle was turned toward one, another, standing in a difier- ent direction, shot him through the head, and he fell lifeless to the ground. There was another slave shot while I was there ; this man had run away, and had been living in the woods a long time, and it was not known where he was, till one day he was dis- covered by two men, who went on the large island near Belvidcre to hunt turkeys ; they shot him and carried his head home. It is common to keep dogs on the plantations, to pursue and catch runaway slaves. I was once bitten by one of them. I went to the overseer's house, the dog lay in the piazza, as soon as I put my foot upon the floor, he sprang and bit me just above the knee, but not severely ; he tore my pantaloons badly. The overseer apologized for his dog, saying he never knew him to bite a white man before. He said he once had a dog, when he hved on another planta- tion, that was very useful to him in hunting run- away negroes. He said that a slave on the plantation once ran away ; as soon as he found the course he took, he put the dog on the track, and he soon came so close upon him that the man had to climb a tree, he followed with his gun, and brought the slave home. The slaves have a great dread of being sold and carried south. It is generally said, and I have no doubt of its truth, that they are much worse treated farther south. The following are a few among the many facts related to me while I lived among the slavehold- er. The names of the planters and plantations, I shall not give, as they did not come under my own observation. I however place the fullest confidence in their truth. A planter not far from Mr. Swan's employed an overseer to whom he paid $400 a year ; he be- came dissatisfied with him, because he did not drive the slaves hard enough, and get more work out of them. He therefore sent to South Carolina, or Georgia, and got a man to whom he paid I believe $800 a year. He proved to be a cruel fellow, and drove the slaves almost to death. There was a slave on this plantation, who had repeatedly run away, and had been severely flogged every time. The last time he was caught, a hole was dug in the ground, and he buried up to the chin, his arms being secured down by his sides. He was kept in this situation four or five days. The following was told me by an intimate friend ; it took place on a plantation containing about one hundred slaves. One day the owner ordered the women into the barn, he then went in among them, whip in hand, and told them he meant to flog them all to death ; they began immedi- ately to cry out " What have I done Massa ?" What have I done Massa ?" He replied ; " D — n you, I wiU let you know what you have done, you don't breed, I haven't had a young one from one of you for several months." They told him they could not breed while they had to work in the rice ditches. (The rice grounds are low and marshy, and have to be drained, and while dig- ging or clearing the ditches, the women had to work in mud and water from one to two feet in depth ; they were obliged to draw up and secure their frocks about their waist, to keep them out of the water, in this manner they frequently had to work from daylight in the morning till it was so dark they could see no longer.) After swear- ing and threatening for some time, he told them to tell the overseer's wife, when they got in that way, and he would put them upon the land to work. This same planter had a female slave who was a member of the Methodist Church ; for a slave she was intelligent and conscientious. He pro- posed a criminal intercourse with her. She would not comply. He left her and sent for the over- seer, and told him to have her flogged. It was done. Not long after, he renewed his proposal. She again refused. She was again whipped. He then told her why she had been twice flogged, and told her he intended to whip her till she should yield. The girl, seeing that her case was hopeless, her back smarting with the scourg- ing she had received, and dreading a repetition, gave herself up to be the victim of his brutal lusts. One of the slaves on another plantation, gave birth to a child which lived but two or three weeks. After its death the planter called the woman to him, and asked her how she came to 16 Personal Narratives — Mr. Caulkins. let the child die ; said it was all owing to her carelessness, and that he meant to flog her for it. She told, him with all the feeling of a mother, the circumstances of its death. But her story availed her nothing against the savage brutality of her master. She was severely whipped. A healthy child four months old was then consid- ered worlhSlOO in North Carolina. The foregoing facts were related to me by white persons of character and respectability. The following fact was related to me on a plan- tation where I have spent considerable time and where the punishment was inflicted. I have no doubt of its truth. A slave ran away from his master, and got as far as Newbern. He took provisions that lasted him a week ; but having eaten all, he went to a house to get some- thing to satisfy his hunger. A white man sus- pecting him to be a runaway, demanded his pass: as he had none he was seized and put in New- bern jail. He was there advertised, his descrip- tion given, &c. His master saw the advertise- ment and sent for him ; when he was brought back, his wrists were tied together and drawn over his knees. A stick was then passed over his arms and under his knees, and he secured in this manner, his trowsers were then stripped down, and he turned over on his side, and severely beaten with the paddle, then turned over and severely beaten on the other side, and then tm-n- ed back again, and tortured by another bruising and beating. He was afterwards kept in the stocks a week, and whipped every morning. To show the disgusting pollutions of slavery, and how it covers with moral filth every thing it touches, I will state two or three facts, which I have on sach evidence I cannot doubt their truth. A planter offered a white man of my acqaintance twenty dollars for every one of his female slaves, whom he would get in the family way. This offer was no doubt made for the purpose of im- proving the stock, on the same principle that farmers endeavour to improve their cattle by crossing the breed. Slaves belonging to merchants and others in the city, often hire their own time, for which they pay various prices per week or month, ac- cording to the capacity of the slave. The fe- males who thus hire their time, pursue various modes to procure the money ; their masters mak- ing no inquiry how they get it, provided the money comes. If it is not regularly paid they are flogged. Some take in washing, some cook on board vessels, pick oakum, sell peanuts, &c., while others, younger and more comely, often resort to the vilest pursuits. I knew a man from the north who, though married to a respectable southern woman, kept two of these mulatto girls in an upper room at liis store ; his wife told some of her friends that he had not lodged at home for two weeks together, I have seen these two kept misftes, as they are there called, at his store ; he was afterwards stabbed in an attempt to ar- rest a runaway slave, and died in about ten days. The clergy at the north cringe beneath the corrupting influence of slavery, and their moral courage is borne down by it. Not the hypocriti- cal and uni)rincipled aloi)'>, l)'-' 'ven such as can hardly be supposed to be d'sl;'. ■••■ of sincerity. Going one motning to the Baptist Sunday school, in Wilmington, in which I was engaged, I fell in with the Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, who was going to the Presbyterian school. I asked him how he could bear to see the little negro children beating their hoops, hallooing, and run- ning about the streets, as we then saw them, their moral condition entirely neglected, while the whites were so carefully gathered into the schools. His reply was substantially this : — " I can't bear it, Mr. Caulkins. I feel as deeply as any one canon this subject, but what can I do ? My HANDS ARE TIED." Now, if Mr. Hunt was guilty of neglecting his dutj^, as a servant of Him who never failed to re- buke sin in high places, what shall be said of those clergymen at the north, where the power that closed his mouth is comparatively unfelt, who refuse to tell their people how God abhors oppression, and who seldom open their mouths on this subject, but to denounce the friends of eman. cipation, thus giving the strongest support to the" accursed system of slavery. I believe Mr. Hunt has since become an agent of the Temperance Society. In stating the foregoing facts, my object has been to show the practical workings of the sys- tem of slavery, and if possible to correct the mis- apprehension on this subject, so common at the north. In doing this I am not at war with slave- holders. No, my soul is moved for them as well as for the poor slaves. May God send them re- pentance to the acknowledgmeni of the truth ! Principle, on a subject of this nature, is dearer to me than the applause of men, and should not be sacrificed on any subject, even though the ties ot friendship may be broken. We have loo long been silent on this subject, the slave has been too much considered, by our northern states, as being kept by necessity in his present condition. — Were we to ask, in the language of Pilate, " what evil have they done" — we may search their history, we cannot find that they have taken up arms against our government, nor insulted us as a na- tion — that they are thus compelled to drag out a life in chains ! subjected to the most terrible inflic- tions if in any way they manifest a v/isli to be released. — Let us reverse the question. What evil has been done to them by those who call them. selves masters? First let us look at their per- sons, " neither clothed nor naked" — I have seen instances where this phrase would not apply to boys and girls, and that too in winter. I knew one young man seventeen years of age, by the name of Dave, on Mr. J. Swan's jjlantation, worked day after day in the rice machine as nak. cd as when he was born. The reason of his being so, his master said in my hearing, was, that he could not keep clothes on him — he would get into the fire and burn them off". Follow them next to their huts ; some with and some without floors : — Go at night, view their means of lodging, see tlicm lying on benches, some on the floor or groimd, some sitting on stools, dozing away the night ; — others, of younger age, with a bare blanket wrapped about them ; and one or two lying in the ashes. These things J have often seen with my own eyes. Examine their means of subsistence, which consists generally of seven quarts of meal or Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton. 17 eight quarts of small rice for one week; then follow them to their work, with driver and over- seer pushing them to the utmost of liieir strength, by threatening and whipping. If they are sick from fatigue and exposure, go to their huts, as I have often been, and see them groaning under a burning fever or pleurisy, lying on some straw, their feet to the fire with barely a blanket to cover them ; or on some boards nailed together in form of a bedstead. And after seeing all this, and hearing them tell of their sufferings, need I ask, is there any evil connected with their condition ? and if so ; upon whom is it to be charged ? I answer for my- self, and the reader can do the same. Our govern- ment stands first chargeable for allowing slavery to exist, under its own jurisdiction. Second, the states for enacting laws to secure their victim. Third, the slaveholder for carrying out such enactments, in horrid form enough to chill the blood. Fourth, every person who knave's what slavery is, and does not raise his voice against this crying sin, but by silence gives consent to its continuance, is chargeable with guilt in the sight of God. " The blood of Zacharias who was skin between the temple and altar," says Christ, " WILL I REQUIRE OF THIS GENERATION." Look at the slave, his condition but little, if at all, better than that of the brute ; chained down by the law, and the will of his master ; and every avenue closed against rehef ; and the names of those who plead for him, cast out as evil ; — must not humanity let its voice be heard, and tell Israel their transgressions and Judah their sins ? May God look upon their afflictions, and deliver them from their cruel task-masters ! I verily be- lieve he will, if there be any efBcacy in prayer. I have been to their prayer meetings and with them offered prayer in their behalf. I have heard some of them in their huts before d£^-light praying in their simple broken language, telling their hea- venly Father of their trials in the following and similar language. " Fader in heaven, look upon de poor slave, dat have to work all de day long, dat cant have de time to pray only in de night, and den massa mus not know it.* Fader, have mercy on massa and missus. Fader, when shall poor slave get tlirough the world ! when will death come, and de poor slave go to heaven ;" and in their meetings they frequently add, " Fader, bless de white man dat come to hear de slave pray, bless his family," and so on. They uniformly begin their meet- ings by singing the following — " And Hre we yet alive To see each other's face," &c. Is the ear of the Most High deaf to the prayer of the slave ? I do firmly believe that their de- liverance will come, and that the prayer of this poor afflicted people will be answered. Emancipation would be safe. I have had eleven winters to learn the disposition of the slaves, and am satisfied that they would peacea- bly and cheerfully work for pay. Give them education, equal and just laws, and they will be- come a most interesting people. Oh, let a cry be raised which shall awaken the conscience of this guilty nation, to demand for the slaves im- mediate and unconditional emancipation. Neiiemiah Caulkins. * At this time there was some fear of insurrection anV the slaves were forbidden to hold niKetiiigs. NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY OF REV. HORACE MOULTON. Mr. Moulton is an esteemed minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Marlborough, Mass. He spent five years in Georgia, between 1817 and 1824. The following communication has been recently received from him. Marlborough, Mass., Feb. 18, 1839. Dear Brother — Yours of Feb. 2d, requesting me to write out a few facts on the subject of slavery, as it exists at the south, has come to hand. I hasten to complj"- with your request. Were it not, how- ever, for the claims of those " who are drawn unto death," and the responsibility resting upon me, in consequence of this request, I should for- ever hold my peace. For I well know that I shall bring upon myself a flood of persecution, for attempting to speak out for the dumb. But I am willing to be set at nought by men, if I can be the means of promoting the welfare of tlie oppressed of our land. I shall not relate many particular cases of cruelty, though I might a great number; but shall give some general information as to their mode of treat- ment, their food, clothing, dwellings, depriva- tions, &c. Let me say, in the first place, that I spent nearly five years in Savannah, Georgia, and in its vicinity, between the years 1817 and 1824. My object in going to the south, was to engage in making and burning brick ; but not immedi. ately succeeding, I engaged in no business of much profit until late in the winter, when I took charge of a set of hands and went to work. During my leisure, however, I was an observer, at the auctions, upon the plantations, and in al- most every department of business. The next year, during the cold months, I had several two- horse teams under my care, with which we used to haul brick, boards, and other articles from the wharf into the city, and cotton, rice, corn, and wood from the country. This gave me an ex- tensive acquaintance with merchants, mechanics and planters. I had slaves under my control some portions of every year when at the south. All the brick-yards, except one, on which I was engaged, were connected either with a corn field, potatoe patch, rice field, cotton field, tan-works, or with a wood lot. My business, usually, was to take charge of the brick-making department. At those jobs I have sometimes taken in charge both the field and brick-yard hands. I have been on the plantations in South Carolina, but have never been an overseer of slaves in that state, as has been said in the public papers. I think the above facts and explanations are 18 Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton. necessary to be connected with the account I may give of slavery, that the reader may have some knowledge of ray acquaintance with practical slavery : for many mechanics and merchants who go to the South, and stay there for years, know but little of the dark side of slavery. My account of slavery will apply to field hands, who compose much the largest por- tion of the black population, (probably nine- tenths,) and not to those who are kept for kitchen maids, nurses, waiters, &c., about the houses of the planters and public hotels, where persons from the north obtain most of their knowledge of the evils of slavery. I will now proceed to take up specific points. THE LABOR OF THE SLAVES. Males and females work together promiscuously on all the plantations. On many plantations tasks are given themt The best working hands can have some leisure time ; but the feeble and unskil- ful ones, together with slender females, have in- deed a hard time of it, and very often answer for non-performance of tasks at the whipping-posts. None who worked with me had tasks at any time. The rule was to work them from sun to sun. But when I was burning brick, they were obliged to take turns, and sit up all night about every other night, and work all day. On one plantation, where I spent a few weeks, the slaves were called up to work long before daylight, when business pressed, and worked until late at night ; and sometimes some of them all night. A large portion of the slaves are owned by mas- ters who keep them on purpose to hire out — and they usually let them to those who will give the highest wages for them, irrespective of their mode of treatment ; and those who hire them, will of course try to get the greatest possible amount of work performed; with the least possi- ble expense. Women are seen bringing their infants into the field to their work, and leading others who are not old enough to stay at the cabins with safety. When they get there, they must set them down in the dirt, and go to work. Sometimes they are left to cry until they fall alseep. Others are left at home, shut up in their huts. Now, is it not barbarous, that the mother, with her child or children around her, half starved, must be whipped at night if she does not perform her task ? But so it is. Some who have very young ones, fix a little sack, and place the infants on their backs, and work. One reason, I presume is, that they will not cry so much when they can hear their mother's voice. Another is, the mothers fear that the poison- ous vipers and snakes will bite them. Truly, I never knew any place where the land is so in- fested with all kinds of the most venomous snakes, as in the low lands round about Savan- nah. The moccasin snakes, so called, and water rattle-snakes — the bites of both of which are as poisonous as our upland rattle-snakes at the north, — are found in myriads about the stag- nant waters and swamps of the South. The fe- males, in order to secure their infants from these poisonous snakes, do, as I have said, often work with their infants on their backs. Females are sometimes called to take the hardest part of the work. On some brick yards where I have been, the women have been selected as the moulders of brick, instead of the men. II. THE FOOD OF THE SLAVES. It was a general custom, wherever I have been, for the masters to give each of his slaves, male and female, one peck of corn per week for their food. This at fifty cents per bushel, which was all that it was worth when I was there, would amount to twelve and a half cents per week for board per head. It cost me upon an average, when at the south, one dollar per day for board. The price of four- teen bushels of corn per week. This would make my board equal in amount to the board oi forty.six slaves ! This is all that good or bad masters al- low their slaves round about Savannah on the plantations. One peek of gourd-seed com is to be measured out to each slave once every week. One man with whom I labored, however, being desirous to get all the work out of his hands he could, before I left, (about fifty in number,) bouglit for them every week, or twice a week, a beef's head from market. With this, they made a soup in a large iron kettle, around which the han-is came at meal-time, and dipping out the soup, would mix it with their hommony, and eat it as though it were a feast. This man permitted his slavcsto eat twice a day while I was doing a job for him. He promised me a beaver hat and as good a suit of clothes as could be bought in the city, if I would accomplish so much for him before I return- ed to the north ; giving me the entire control over his slaves. Thus you may see the temptations overseers sometimes have, to get all the work they can out of the poor slaves. The above is an exception to the general rule of feeding. For in all other places where I worked and visited ; the slaves had nothing from their masters but the corn, or its equivalent in potatoes or rice, and to this, they were not permitted to come but once a day. The custom was to blow the horn early in the morning, as a signal for the hands to lise and go to work, when commenced ; they continued work until about eleven o'clock, A. M., when, at the signal, all hands left off, and went into their huts, made their fires, made their corn-meal into hom- mony or cake, ate it, and went to work again at the signal of the horn, and worked until night, or until their tasks were done. Some cooked their breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he has done his work at night. There is generally one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of the slaves. Some of the planters have no corn, others often get out. The substitute for it is, the equivalent of one peck of corn either in rice or sweet potatoes ; neither of which is as good for the slaves as com. They complain more of being faint, when fed on rice or potatoes, than when fed on corn. I was with one man a few weeks who gave me his hands to do a job of work, and to save time one cooked for all the rest. The following coiu-se was taken, — Two crotched sticks were driven down at one end of the yard, and a small {)ole being laid on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on the middle of the pole ; then made up a firo under the kettle and boiled the hommony ; when ready, the hands were called around this kettle Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton. 19 with their wooden plates and spoons. They dip- ped out and ate standing around the kettle, or sit- ting upon the ground, as best suited their conve- nience. When they had potatoes they took them But with their hands, and ate them. As soon as it was thought they had had sufficient time to swal- low their food they were called to their work again. This was the only meal they ate through the day. Now think of the little, almost naked and half- starved children, nibbling upon a piece of cold Indian cake, or a potato ! Think of the poor fe- male, just ready to be confined, without any thing that can be called convenient or comfortable ! Think of the old toil-worn father and mother, with- out any thing to eat but the coarsest of food, and not half enough of that ! then think of home. When sick, their physicians are their masters and overseers, in most cases, whose skill consists in bleeding and in administering large potions of Ep- som salts, when the whip and cursing will not start them from their cabins. IXI. HOUSES. The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poor- est kind. Tliey are not as good as those tempo- rary shanties which are thrown up beside rail- roads. They are erected with posts and crotches, with but little or no frame-work about them. They have no stoves or chimneys; some of them have something like a fireplace at one end, and a board or two ofi at that side, or on the roof, to let off the smoke. Others have nothing like a fire- place in them ; in these the fire is sometimes made in the middle of the hut. These buildings have but one apartment in them ; the places where they pass in and out, serve both for doors and windows ; the sides and roofs are covered with coarse, and in many instances with refuse boards. In warm weather, especially in the spring, the slaves keep up a smoke, or fire and smoke, all night, to drive away the gnats and musketoes, which are very troublesome in all the low country of the south ; so much so that the whites sleep 'ir.der frames with nets over them, knit so fine that the musketoes cannot fly through them. Some of the slaves have rugs to cover them in the coldest weather, but I should think more have not. During driving storms they frequently have to run from one hut to another for shelter. In the coldest weather, where they can get wood or stumps, they keep up fires all night in their huts, and lay aroimd them, with their feet to- wards the blaze. Men, women and children all lie down together, in most instances. There may be exceptions to the above statements in regard to their houses, but so far as my observations have extended, I have given a fair description, and I have been on a large number of planta- tions in Georgia and South Carolina up and down the Savannah river. Their huts are generally built compactly on the plantations, forming villa- ges of huts, their size proportioned to the number of slaves on. them. In these miserable huts the poor blacks are herded at night like swine, without any conveniences of bedsteads, tables or chairs. O misery to the full ! to see the aged sire beating oiF the swarms of gnats and musketoes in the warm weather, and shivering in the straw, or bending over a few coals in the winter, clothed in rags. I should think males and females, both lie down at night with their working clothes on them. God alone knows how much the poor slaves suffer for the want of convenient houses to secure them from the piercing winds and howl- ing storms of winter, especially the aged, sick and dying. Although it is much warmer there than here, yet I suffered for a number of weeks in the winter, almost as much in Georgia as I do in Massachusetts. IV. CLOTHING. The masters [in Georgia] make a practice of getting two suits of clothes for each slave per year, a thick suit for winter, and a thin one for summer. They provide also one pair of northern made sale shoes for each slave in winter. These shoes usu- ally begin to rip in a few weeks. The negroes' mode of mending them is, to wire them together, in many instances. Do our northern shoemakers know that they are augmenting the sufferings of the poor slaves with their almost good for nothing sale shoes ? Inasmuch as it is done unto one of those poor sufferers it is done unto our Saviour. The above practice of clothing the slave is cus. tomary to some extent. How many, however, fail of this, God only knows. The children and old slaves are, I should think, exceptions to the above rule. The males and females have their suits from the same cloth for their winter dresses. These winter garments appear to be made of a mixture of cotton and wool, very coarse and sleazy. The whole suit for the men consists of a pair of pantaloons and a short sailor-jacket, tcithout shirt, vest, hat, stockings, or any kind of loose garments .' These, if worn steadily when at work, would not probably last more than one or two months ; therefore, for the sake of saving them, many of them work, especially in the sum- mer, with no clothing on them except a cloth tied round their waist, and almost all with nothing more on them than pantaloons, and these fre- quently so torn that they do not serve the pur- poses of common decency. The women have for clothing a short petticoat, and a short loose gown, something like the male's sailor-jacket, without any under garment, stockings, bonnets, hoods, caps, or any kind of over-clothes. When at work in wann weather, they usually strip off the loose go\vn, and have nothing on but a short petticoat with some kind of covering over their breasts. Many children may be seen in the sum- mer months as naked as they came into the world. I think, as a whole, they suffer more for the want of comfortable bed-clothes, than they do for wear- ing apparel. It is true, that some by begging or buying, have more clothes than above described, but the masters provide them with no more. They are miserable objects of pity. It may be said of many of them, " I was naked and ye clothed me not." It is enouoh to melt the hardest heart to see the ragged mothers nursing their almost nak- ed children, witii but a morsel of the coarsest food to eat. The Southern horses and dogs have enough to eat and good care taken of them, but Southern negroes, who can describe their misery ? v. PUNISHMENTS. Tlie ordinary mode of punishing the slaves is both cruel and barbarous. The masters seldom, if ever, try to govern their slaves by moral influ* 20 Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton. ence, but by whipping, kicking, beating, starving, branding, cat-hauling, loading with irons, impris- oning, or by some other cruel mode of torturing. They often boast of having invented some new mode of tortiu-e, by which they have " tamed the rascals." What is called a moderate flogging at the south is horribly cruel. Should we whip our horses for any oflfcnce as they whip their slaves for small ofFcnees, we should expose ourselves to the penalty of the law. The masters whip for the smallest offences, such as not performing their tasks, being cauglit by the guard or patrol by night, orfor taking any thing from the master's yard v/ithout leave. For these, and the like crimes, the slaves are whipped thirty-nine lashes, and sometimes seventy or a hundred, on the bare back. One slave, who was under my care, was whipped, I think one hundred lashes, for getting a small handful of wood from his master's yard without leave. I heard an overseer boasting to this same master that he gave one of the boys sevcnt}' lashes, for not doing a job of work just as he thought it ought to be done. The o%vner of the slave ap- peared to be pleased that the overseer had been so faithful. The apology they make for whipping so cruellv is, that it is to frighten the rest of the gang. The m;isters say, that what we call an ordinary flogging will not subdue the slaves ; hence the most cruel and barbarous scourgings ever witnessed by man are daily and hourly in- flicted upon the naked bodies of these miserable bondmen ; not by masters and negro-drivers only, but by the constables in the common markets and jailors in their yards. When the slaves are whipped, either in public or private, they have their hands fastened by the wrists, with a rope or cord prepared for the pur- pose : this being thrown over a beam, a limb of a tree, or something else, the culprit is drawn up and stretched by the arms as high as possible, without raising his feet from the ground or floor : and sometimes they are made to stand on tip-toe ; then the feet are made fast to something prepared for them. In this distorted posture the monster flies at them, sometimes in great rage, with his implements of torture, and cuts on with all his might, over the shoulders, under the arms, and sometimes over the head and ears, or on parts of the body where he can inflict the greatest torment. Occasionally the whipper, especially if his victim does not beg enough to suit him. while under the lash, will fly into a passion, uttering the most hor- rid oaths ; while the victim of his rage is crying, at every stroke, " Lord have mercy ! Lord have mercy !" The scenes exhibited at the whipping post are awfully terrific and frightful to one whose heart has not turned to stone ; I never could look on but a moment. While imder the lash, the bleeding victim writhes in agony, convulsed with torture. Thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, which tear the skin at almost every stroke, is what the South calls a very moderate punishment ! Many masters whip until they are tired — until the back is a gore of blood — then rest upon it : after a short cessation, get up and go at it again ; and after liaving satiated their revenge in the blood of their victims, they sometimes leave them tied, for /lours together, bleeding at every iDoiinfL — Sometimes, after being whipppd, they arc bathed with a brine of salt and water. Now and then a master, but more frequentlj' a mistress who has no husband, will send them to jail a few da3's. giving orders to have them whipped, so manj lashes, once or twice a day. Sometimes, aftei being whipped, some have been shut up in a darli place and deprived of food, in order to increase their torments : and I have heard of some who have, in such circumstances, died of their wounds and starvation. Such scenes of horror as above described are so common in Georgia that they attract no atten- tion. To threaten them with death, with break- ing in their teeth or jaws, or cracking their heads, is common talk, when scolding at the slaves. — Those who run away from their masters and are caught again generally fare the worst. They are generally lodged in jail, with instructions from the owner to have them cruelly whipped. Some or- der the constables to whip them pubhcly in the market. Constables at the south are generall}' savage, brutal men. They have become so accus- tomed to catching and whipping negroes, that they are as fierce as tigers. Slaves who are ab- sent from tlieir yards, or plantations, after eight o'clock P. M., and are taken by the guard in the cities, or by the patrols in the country, are, if not called for before nine o'clock A. M. the next day, secured in prisons ; and hardly ever escape, until their backs arc torn up by the cow-hide. On plantations, the evenings usually present scenes of horror. Those slaves against whom charges are preferred for not having performed their tasks, and for various faults, must, after work-hours at night, undergo their torments. I have often heard the sound of the lash, the curses of the whipper, and the cries of the poor negro rending the air. late in the evening, and long before day-light in the morning. It is very common for masters to say to the overseers or drivers, " put it on to them," " don't spare tjiat fellow," " give that scoundrel one hun- dred lashes," &c. Whipping the women when in delicate circumstances, as they sometimes do, without any regard to their entreaties or the en- treaties of their nearest friends, is truly barbarous. If negroes could testify, they would tell you ol instances of women being whipped until they hav^ miscarried at the whipping-post. I heard of such things at the south — they are undoubted, ly facts. Children are whipped unmercifully for the smallest offences, and that before their mo- thers. A large proportion of the blacks liavc their shoulders, backs, and arms all scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads laid open with clubs, stones, and brick-bats, and with the butt-end of whips and carfes — some have had their jaws broken, others their teeth knocked in or out ; while others have had their ears cropped and the sides of their cheeks gashed out. Some of the poor creatures have lost the sight of one of their eyes by the careless blows of the whipper, or by some other violence. Butpunishingof slaves as above described, is not the onljr mode of torture. Sonie tie thorn up in a very imcasy posture, where they must stand all night, and they will then work them hard all day — that is. work them hard all day and tor- ment them all niglit. Others punish by fastening them down on a log, or something else, and strike them on the bare skin with a board paddle Personal Narratives — Rev. Horace Moulton. 21 full of holes. This breaks the skin, I should presume, at every hole where it comes in contact with it. Others, when other modes of punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them — that is, take a cat by the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind legs, and drag the claws across the back until satisfied. This kind of pun- ishment poisons the flesh much worse than the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave. Some are branded by a hot iron, others have their flesh cut out in large gashes, to mark them. Some who are prone to run away, have iron fet- ters riveted around their ancles, sometimes they are put only on one foot, and are dragged on the ground. Others have on large iron collars or yokes upon their necks, or clogs riveted upon their wrists or ancles. Some have bells put upon them, hmig upon a sort of frame to an iron collar. Some masters fly into a rage at trifles and knock down their negroes with their fists, or with the first thing that thoy can get hold of. The whip, lash-knots, or rawliide, have sometimes by a reckless stroke reached round to the front of the body and cut through to the bowels. One slave- holder with whom I lived, whipped one of his slaves one day, as many, I should think, as one hundred lashes, and then turned the butt-end and went to beating him over the head and ears, and truly I was amazed that the slave was not killed on the spot. Not a few slaveholders whip their slaves to death, and then say that they died under a " moderate correction." I wonder that ten are not killed where one is ! Were they not much hardier than the whites many more of them must die than do. One young mulatto man, with whom I was well acquainted, was killed by his master in his yard with impunity. I boarded at the same time near the place where this glaring murder was committed, and knew the master well. He had a plantation, on which he enacted, almost daily, cruel barbarities, some of them, I was informed, more terrific, if possible, than death itself. Little notice was taken of this murder, and it all passed ofl" without any action being taken against the murderer. The masters used to try to make me whip their negroes. They said I could not get along with them without flogging them — but I found I could get along better with them by coaxing and en- couraging them than by beating and flogging them. I had not a heart to beat and kick about those beings ; although I had not grace in my heart the three first years I was there, yet I sym- pathised with the slaves. I never was guilty of having but one whipped, and he was whipped but eight or nine blows. The circumstances were as follows : Several negroes were put under my care, one spring, who xoere fresh from Congo and Guinea. I could not understaifc them, nei- ther could they me, in one word I spoke. I therefore pointed to them to go to work ; all obeyed me willingly but one — he refused. I told the driver that he must tie him up and whip him. After he had tied him, by the help of some others, we struck him eight or nine blows, and he yielded. I told the driver not to strike him ano- ther blow. We untied him, and lie went to work, and continued faithful all the time he was with me. This one was not a sample, however — many of them have such exalted views of freedom that it is hard work for the masters to whip them into brutes, that is to subdue their noble spirits. The negroes being put under my care, did not prevent the masters from whipping them when they pleased. But they never whipped much in my presence. This work was usually left until 1 had dismissed the hands. On the plantations, the masters chose to have the slaves w^hipped in the presence of all the hands, to strike them with terror. VI. RUNAWAYS. Numbers of poor slaves run away from their masters ; some of whom doubtless perish in the swamps and other secret places, rather than re- turn back again to their masters ; others stay away until they almost famish with hunger, and then return home rather than die, while others who abscond are caught by the negro-hunters, in various ways. Sometimes the master will hire some of his most trusty negroes to secure any stray negroes, who come on to their plantations, for many come at night to beg food of their friends on the plantations. The slaves assist one another usually when they can, and not be found out in it. The master can now and then, however, get some of his hands to betray the run- aways. Some obtain their living in hunting after lost slaves. The most common way is to train up young dogs to follow them. This can easily be done by obliging a slave to go out into the woods, and climb a tree, and then put the young dog on his track, and with a little assistance he can be taught to follow him to the tree, and when found, of course the dog would bark at such game as a poor negro on a tree. There was a man living in Savannah when I was there, who kept a large number of dogs for no other pur- pose than to hunt runaway negroes. And he always had enough of this work to do, for hun- dreds of runaways are never found, but could he get news soon after one had fled, he was almost sure to catch him. And this fear of the dogs re- strains multitudes from running off. When he went out on a hunting excursion, to be gone several days, he took several persons with him, armed generally with rifles and followed by the dogs. The dogs were as true to the track of a negro, if one had passed recently, as a hound is to the track of a fox when he has found it. When the dogs draw near to their game, the slave must turn and fight them or climb a tree. If the latter, the dogs will stay and bark until the pursuers come. The blacks frequently deceive the dogs by crossing and recrossing the creeks. Should the hunters who have no dogs, start a slave from his hiding place, and the slave not stop at the hunter's call, he will shoot at him, as soon as he would at a deer. Some masters advertise so much for a runaway slave, dead or alive. It undoubt- edly gives such more satisfaction to know that their property is dead, than to know that it is alive without being able to get it. Some slaves run away who never mean to be taken alive, I will mention one. He run off and was pursued by the dogs, but having a weapon with him he succeeded in killing two or three of the dogs ; but was afterwards shot. He had declared, that he never would be taken alive. The people rejoiced at the death of the slave, but lamented 22 Personal Narratives — Sarah M. Grimke. the death of the dogs, they were such ravenous hunters. Poor fellow, he fought for life and liberty like a hero ; but the bullets brought him down. A negro can hardly walk unmolested at the south. — Every colored stranger that walks the streets is suspected of being a runaway slave, hence he must be interrogated by every negro hater whom he meets, and should he not have a pass, he must be arrested and hurried off to jail. Some masters boast that their slaves would not be free if they could. How little they know of their slaves ! They are all sighing and groaning for freedom. May God hasten the time ! VII. CONFINEMENT AT NIGHT. When the slaves have done their day's work, they must be herded together like sheep in their yards, or on their plantations. They have not as much liberty as northern men have, who are sent to jail for debt, for they have liberty to walk a larger yard than the slaves have. The slaves must all be at their homes precisely at eight o'clock, p.m. At this hour the drums beat in the cities, as a signal for every slave to be in his den. In the country, the signal is given by firing guns, or some other way by which they may know the hour when to be at home. After this hour, the guard in the cities, and patrols in the country, being well armed, are on duty until daylight in the morning. If they catch any negroes during the night without a pass, they are immediately seized and hurried away to the guard-house, or if in the country to some place of confinement, where they are kept until nine o'clock, A. M., the next day, if not called for by that time, they are hurried off to jail, and there remain until called for bj^ their master and his jail and guard house fees paid. The guards and patrols receive one dollar extra for every one they can catch, who has not a pass from his master, or overseer, but few masters will give their slaves passes to be out at night unless on some special business : notwithstanding, many venture out, watching every step they take for the guard or patrol, the consequence is, some are caught almost every night, and some nights many are taken ; some, fleeing after being hailed b}' the watch, are shot down in attempting their escape, others are crippled for life. I find I shall not be able to write out more at present. My ministe- rial duties are pressing, and if I delay this till the next mail, I fear it will not be in season. Your brother for those who are in bonds, Horace Moulton. NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY OF SARAH M. GRIMKE. Miss Grimke is a daughter of the late Judge Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and sister of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke. As I left my native state on account of slave. rV', and deserted the home of my fathers to escape the sound of the lash and the shrieks of tortured victims, I would gladly bury in oblivion the re- collection of those scenes with which I have been familiar ; but this may not, cannot be ; they come over my memory like gory spectres, and hn])lore me with resistless power, in the name of a God of mercy, in the name of a crucified Sa- vior, in the name of humanity ; for the sake of the slaveholder, as well as the slave, to bear witness to the horrors of the southern prison house. I feel impelled by a sacred sense of duty, by my obligations to my country, by sym- pathy for the bleeding victims of tyranny and lust, to give my testimony respecting the system of American slavery, — to detail a few facts, most of which came under my personal observation. And here I may premise, that the actors in these tragedies were all men and women of the high- est respectability, and of the first families in South Carolina, and, with one exception, citi- zens of Charleston ; and that their cruelties did not in the slightest degree affect their standing in society. A handsome mulatto w^oman, about 18 or 20 years of age, whose independent spirit could not brook the degradation of slavery, was in the habit of running away : for this offence she had been repeatedly sent by her master and mistress to be whipped by the keeper of the Charleston 3i'ork-house. This had been done with such in- human severity, as to lacerate her back in a most shocking manner; a finger could not be laid between the cuts. But the love of hberty was too strong to be annihilated by torture ; and, as a last resort, she was whipped at several dif- ferent times, and kept a close prisoner. A heavy iron collar, with three long prongs projecting from it, Vas placed round her neck, and a strong and sound front tooth was extracted, to serve as a mark to describe her, in case of es- cape. Her sufferings at this time were agoniz- ing ; she could lie in no position but on her back, whieh' was sore from scourgings, as I can testify, from personal inspection, and her only place of rest was the floor, on a blanket. These outrages were committed in a family where the mistress daily read the scriptures, and assembled her children for family worship. She was account- ed, and was really, so far as alms-giving was concerned, a charitable woman, and tender hearted to the poor ; and yet this suffering slave, who was the seamstress of the family, was con- tinually in her presence, sitting in her chamber to sew, or engaged in her other household work, with her lacerated and bleeding back, her muti- lated mouth, and heavy iron collar, without, so far as appeared, exciting any feelings of com- passion. • A highly intelligent slave, who panted after freedom with ceaseless longings, made many at- tempts to get possession of himself. For every offence he was punished with e.Ttreme severity. At one time he was tied up by his hands to a tree, and whipped until his back was one gore of blood. To this terrible infliction lie was sub- jected at intervals for several weeks, and kept heavily ironed while at his work. His master one day accused him of a fault, in the usual terms dictated by passion and arbitrary power; Personal Narratives — Sarah M. Grimke. 23 the man protested his innocence, but was not credited. He again repelled the charge with honest indignation. His master's temper rose almost to frenzy ; and seizing a fork, he made a deadly plunge at the breast of the slave. The man being far his superior in strength, caught his arm, and dashed the weapon on the floor. His master grasped at his throat, but the slave disengaged himself, and rushed from the apart- ment. Having made his escape, he fled to the woods ; and after wandering about for many months, living on roots and berries, and enduring every hardship, he was arrested and committed to jail. Here he lay for a considerable time, allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life, whipped in the most shocking manner, and con- fined in a cell so loathsome, that when his mas- ter visited him, he said the stench was enough to knock a man down. The filth had never been removed from the apartment since the poor creature had been immured in it. Although a black man, such had been the effect of starva- tion and suffering, that his master declared he hardly recognized him — his complexion was so yellow, and his hair, naturally thick and black, had become red and scanty; an infallible sign of long continued living on bad and insufficient food. Stripes, imprisonment, and the gnawings of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit for a season ; and, to use his master's own exultmg expression, he was " as humble as a dog." After a time he made another attempt to escape, and was absent so long, that a reward was ofliered for him, dead or alive. He eluded every attempt to take him, and his master, despairing of ever getting him again, offered to pardon him if he would return home. It is always understood that such intel- ligence will reach the runaway ; and according- ly, at the entreaties of his wife and mdther, the fugitive once more consented to return to his bit- ter bondage. I believe this was the last effort to obtain his liberty. His heart became touched with the power of the gospel ; and the spirit which no inflictions could subdue, bowed at the cross of Jesus, and with the language on his lips — "the cup that my father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" submitted to the yoke of the oppressor, and wore his chains in unmurmur- ing patience till death released him. The mas- ter who perpetrated these wrongs upon his slave, was one of the most influential and honored citi- zens of South Carolina, and to his equals was bland, and courteous, and benevolent even to a proverb. A slave who had been separated from his wife, because it best suited the convenience of his owner, ran away. He was taken up on the plantation where his wife, to whom he was ten- derly attached, then lived. His only object in running away was to return to her — no other fault was attributed to him. For this offence he was confined in the stocks six weeks, in a mis- erable hovel, not weather-tight. He received fifty lashes weekly during that time, was allow- ed food barely sufficient to sustain him, and when released from confinement, was not permitted to return to his wife. His master, although him- self a husband and a father, was unmoved by j the touching appeals of the slave, who entreated that he might only remain with his wife, promis- J ing to discharge his duties faithfully ; his master continued inexorable, and he was torn from his wife and family. The owner of this slave was a professing Christian, in full membership with the church, and this circumstance occurred when he was confined to his chamber during his last ill. ness. A punishment di'eaded more by the slaves than whipping, unless it is unusually severe, is one which was invented by a female acquaint, ance of mine in Charleston — I heard her say so with much satisfaction. It is standing on one foot and holding the other in the hand. After- wards it was improved upon, and a strap was contrived to fasten around the ankle and pass around the neck ; so that the least weight of the foot resting on the strap would choke the person. The pain occasioned by this unnatural position was great ; and when continued, as it sometimes was, for an hour or more, produced intense agony. I heard this same woman sajr, that she had the ears of her waiting maid slit for some petty theft. This she told me in the presence of the girl, who was standing in the room. She often had the helpless victims of her cruelty se- verely whipped, not scrupling herself to wield the instrument of torture, and with her own hands inflict severe chastisement. Her husband was less inhuman than his wife, but he was often goaded on by her to acts of great severity. In his last illness I was sent for, and watched be- side his death couch. The girl on whom he had so often inflicted punishment, haunted his dying hours ; and when at length the king of terrors approached, he shrieked in utter agony of spirit, " Oh, the blackness of darkness, the black imps, I can see them all around me — take them away !" and amid such exclamations he expired. These persons were of one of the first families in Cliarleston. A friend of mine, in whose veracity 1 have en. tire confidence, told me that about two years ago, a woman in Charleston with whom I was well acquainted, had starved a female slave to death. She was confined in a solitary apartment, kept constantly tied, and condemned to the slow and horrible death of starvation. This woman was notoriously cruel. To those who have read the narrative of James Williams I need only say, that the character of young Larrimore's wife is an ex. act description of this female tyrant, whose coun- tenance was ever dressed in smiles when in the presence of strangers, but whose heart was as the nether millstone toward her slaves. As I was traveling in the lower country in South Carolina, a number of years since, my at. tention was suddenly arrested by an exclamation of hon'or from the coachman, who called out, " Look there. Miss Sarah, don't you see?"-I looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a human head stuck up on a high pole. On inquiry, I found that a runaway slave, who was outlawed, had been shot there, his head severed from his body, and put upon the public highway, as a terror to deter slaves from running away. On a plantation in North Carolina, where I was visiting, I happened one day, in my rambles, to step into a nenro cabin ; my compassion was in. stantly called forth by the object which presented itself. A slave, whose head was white with age, 24 Personal Narratives — Sarah M. Grimk6. was lying in one corner of the hovel ; he had un- der his head a few filthy rags, but the boards were his only bed, it was the depth of winter, and the wind whistled through every part of the dilapi- dated building — he opened his languid eyes when I spo\e, andinreplyto my question, " What is the matter ?" he said, " I am dying of a cancer in my side." — As he removed the rags which covered the sore, I found that it extended half round the body, and was sliockingly neglected. I inquired if he had any nurse. " No, missey," was his answer, "butde people (the slaves) very kind tome, dey often steal time to run and see me and fetch me some ting to eat ; if dey did not, I might starve." The master and mistress of this man, who had been worn out in their service, were remarkable for their intelligence, and their hospitality knew no bounds towards those who were of their own grade in society : the master had for some time held the highest military office in North Carolina, and not long previous to the time of which I speak, was the Governor of the State. On a plantation in South Carolina, I witnessed a similar case of suffering — an aged woman sufTer- ing under an incurable disease in the same miser- ably neglected situation. The " owner" of this slave was proverbially kind to her negroes ; so much so, tliat the planters in the neighborhood said she spoiled them, and set a bad example, which might produce discontent among the sur- rounding slaves ; yet I have seen this woman tremble with rage, when her slaves displeased her, and heard her use language to them which could only be expected from an inmate of Bridewell ; and have known her in a gust of passion send a favorite slave to the workhouse to be severely whipped. Another fact occurs to me. A young woman about eighteen, stated some circumstances rela- tive to her young master, which were thought de- rogatory to his character ; whether true or false, I am unable to say ; she was threatened with punishment, but persisted in affirming that she had only spoken the truth. Finding her incorrigible, it was concluded to send her to the Charleston v.^orkhouse and have her whipt ; she pleaded in vain for a commutation of her sentence, not so much because she dreaded the actual suffering, as because her delicate mind shrunk from the shocking exposure of her person to the eyes of brutal and licentious men ; she declared to me that death would be preferable ; but her entreaties were vain, and as there was no means of escaping but by running awav, she resorted to it as a des- Kerate remedy, for her timid nature never could ave braved the perils necessarily encountered by fugitive slaves, had not her mind been thrown into a state of despair. — She was apprehended after a few weeks, by two slave-catchers, in a deserted house, and as it was late in the evening they con- cluded to spend the night there. What inhiunan treatment she received from them has never been revealed. They tied her with cords to their bo- dies, and supposing they had secured their victim, .soon fell into a deep sleep, probably rendered more profound by intoxication and fatigue ; but the miserable captive slumbered not ; by some means she disengaged herself from her bonds, and again fled through the lone wilderness. After a few days she was discovered in a wretched Imt, which seemed to have 'been long uninhabited ; she was speechless ; a raging fever consume d her vitals, and when a physician saw her, he said she was dying of a disease brought on by over fatigue ; her mother was permitted to visit her, but ere she reached her, the damps of death stood upon her brow, and she had only the sad consolation of looking on the death-struck form and convulsive agonies of her child. A beloved friend in South Carolina, the wife of a slaveholder, with whom I often mingled mv tears, when helpless and hopeless we deplored together the horrors of slavery, related to me some years since the following circumstance. On the plantation adjoining her husband's, therewasa slave of pre-eminentpicty. His master was not aprofessorof religion, butthesuperiorex- cellence of this disciple of Christ was not unmark- ed by him, and I believe he was so sensible of the good influence of his piety that he did not de- prive him of the few religious privileges within his reach. A planter was one day dining with the owner of this slave, and in the course of con- versation observed, that all profession of religion among slaves was mere hypocrisy. The other as- serted a contrary opinion, adding, I have a slave who I believe would rather die than deny his Sa- viour. This was ridiculed, and the master urged to prove the assertion. He accordingly sent for this man of God, and peremptorily ordered liim to deny his belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. The slave pleaded to be excused, constantly affirming that he would rather die than deny the Redeemer, whose blood was shed for him. His master, after vainly trying to induce obedience by threats, liad him terribly whipped. The fortitude of the sufferer was not to be shaken ; he nobly reject- ed the offer of exemption from further chastise- ment at the expense of destroying his soul, and this blessed martyr died in consequence of this severe injliction. Oh, how bright a gem will this victim of irresponsible power be, in that crown which sparkles on the Redeemer's brow ; and that many such will cluster there, I have not the shadow of a doubt. Sarah M. Grimke. Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey, 3rd Month, 26th, 1830. Personal Narratives — Rev. John Graham. 25 TESTIMONY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN GRAHAM, of Townsend, Mass., who resided in S. Carolina, from 1831, to the latter part of 1833. Mr. Gra. ham graduated at Amherst College in 1829, spent some time at the Theological Seminary, in New Haven, Ct., and went to South Carolina, for his health in 1830. He resided principally on the island of St. Helena, S. C., and most of the time in the family of James Tripp, Esq., a wealthy slave holding planter. During his residence at St. Helena, he was engaged as an instructer, and was most of the time the stated preacher on the island. Mr. G. was extensively known in Massachusetts ; and his fellow students and instructors, at Amherst College, and at Yale Theological Seminary, can bear testimony to his integrity and moral worth. The following are extracts of letters, which he wrote while in South Carolina, to an intimate friend in Concord, Massachusetts, who has kindly furnished them for publication. EXTRACTS. Springfield, St. Helena Isl., S. C.,Oct. 22, 1832. " Last night, about one o'clock, I was awaken, ed by the report of a musket. I was out of bed almost instantly. On opening my window, I found the report proceeded from my host's cham- ber. He had let off his pistol, which he usually keeps by him night and day, at a slave, who had come into the yard, and as it appears, had been with one of his house servants. He did not hit him. The ball, taken from a pine tree the next morning, I will show you, should I be spared by Providence ever to return to you. The house servant was called to the master's chamber, where he received 75 lashes, very severe too ; and I could not only hear every lash, but each groan which succeeded very distinctly as I lay in my bed. What was then done with the servant I know not. Nothing was said of this to me in the morning and I presume it will ever be kept from me wilh care, if I may judge of kindred acts. I shall make no comment." In the same letter, Mr. Graham says : — " You ask me of my hostess" — then after giving an idea of her character says : " To day, she has I verily believe laid, in a very severe manner too, more than 300 stripes, upon the house servants," (17 in number.) Darlington, Court House. S. C. March, 28th, 1838. " I walked up to the Court House to day, where I heard one of the most interesting cases I ever heard. I say interesting, on account of its novelty to me, though it had no novelty for the people, as such cases are of frequent occurrence. The case was this : To know whether two ladies, present in court, were white or black. The ladies were dressed well, seemed modest, and were retiring and neat in their look, having blue eyes, black hair, and appeared to under- stand much of the etiquette of southern behav- iour. " A man, more avaricious than humane, as is the case with most of the rich planters, laid a remote claim to those two modest, unassuming, innocent and free young ladies as his property, with the design of putting them into the field, and thus increasing his STOCK ! As well as the people of Concord are known to be of a peaceful disposition, and for their love of good order, I verily believe if a similar trial should be brought forward there and conducted as this was, the good people would drive the lawyers out of the house. Such would be their indigna- tion at their language, and at the mean under-hand- ed manner of trying to ruin those young ladies, as to their standing in society in this district, if they could not succeed in dooming them for life to the degraded condition of slavery, and all its intolerable cruelties. Oh slavery ! if statues of marble could curse you, they would speak. If bricks could speak, tlicy would all surely thun. der out their anathemas against you, accursed thing ! How many white sons and daughters, have bled and groaned under the lash in this sultry climate," &c. Under date of March, 1832, Mr. G. writes, " I have been doing what I hope never to he called to do again, and what I fear I have badly done, though performed to the best of my ability, namely, sewing up a very bad wound made by a wild hog. The slave was hunting wild hogs, when one, being closely pursued, turned upon his pursuer, who turning to run, was caught by the animal, thrown down, and badly wounded in the thigh. The wound is about five inches long and very deep. It was made by the tusk of the ani- mal. The slaves brought him to one of the huts on Mr. Tripp's plantation and made every exer- tion to stop the blood by filling the wound with ashes,(their remedy for stopping blood) but finding this to fail they came to me (there being no other white person on the plantation, as it is now holi- days) to know if I could stop the blood. I went and found that the poor creature must bleed to death unless it could be stopped soon. I called for a needle and succeeded in sewing it up as well as I could, and in stopping the blood. In a short time his master, who had been sent for came ; and oh, you would have shuddered if you had heard the awful oaths that fell from his lips, threatening in the same breath " to pay him for that .'" I left him as soon as decency would per- mit, with his hearty thanks that I had saved him ^500 ! Oh, may heaven protect the poor, suffer- ing, fainting slave, and show his master his wan ton cruelty — oh slavery ! slavery !" Under date of July, 1832, Mr. G. writes, " 1 wish you could have been at the breakfast table with me this morning to have seen and heard what I saw and heard, not that I wish your ear and heart and soul pained as mine is, ' with every day's' observation 'of wrong and out- rage' with which this place is filled, but that you might have auricular and ocular evidence of the cruelty of slavery, of cruelties that mortal lan- guage can never describe — that you might see the tender mercies of a hardened slaveholder, one who bears the name of being one of the mild' 26 Personal Narratives — Mr. Poe. est and viost merciful masters of tckich this isl. and can boast. Oh, my friend, atiollier is scream- infj under the lash, in the shed-room, but for what I know not. The scene this morning was truly distressing to me. It was this : — After the blessing was asked at the breakfast table, one of the servants, a woman grown, in giving one of the children some molasses, happened to pour out a little more than usual, though not more thanlhe child usually eats. Her master was angry at the petty and indifferent mistake, or slip of the hand. He rose from the table, took both of her hands in one of his, and with the other began to beat lier, first on one side of her head and then on the other, and repeating this, till, as he said on sitting down at table, it hurt his hand too much to con- tinue it longer. He then took off his shoe, and with the heel began in the same manner as v.ith his hand, till the poor creature could no longer endure it without screeches and raising her elbow as it is natural to ward off the blows. He then called a great overgrown negro to hold her /lands behind her while he should wreak his ven- geance upon the poor servant. In this position he began again to beat the poor suffering wretch. It now became intolerable to bear ; she fell, screaming to me for help. After she fell, he beat her until I thought she would have died in his liands. She got up, however, went out and washed off "the blood and came in before we rose from table, one of the most pitiable objects I ever saw till I came to the South. Her ears were almost as thick as my hand, her eyes aw- fully blood-shotten, her iips, nose, cheeks, chin, and whole head swollen so that no one would have known it was Etta — and for all this, she had to turn round as she was going out and thank her master .' Now, all this was done wliile I was fit- ting at breakfast with the rest of the family. Think you not I wished myself sitting with the peaceful and happy circle around your table ? Think of my feelings, but pity tlie "poor negro slave, who not only fans his cruel master when he eats and sleeps, but bears the stripes his ca- price may inflict. Think of this, and let heaven hear your prayers." In a letter dated St. Helena Island, S. C, Dec. 3, 1832, Mr. G. writes, " If a slave here complains to his master, that his task is too great, his master at once calls him a scoundrel and tells him it is only because he has not enough to do, and orders the driver to increase his task, however unable he may be for the performance of it. I saw twenty- seven ivhipped at one time just because they did not do more, when the poor creatures were so tired that they could scarcely drag one foot after the other." TESTIMONY OF MR. WILLIAM POE. Rlr. Poe is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and was formerly a slaveholder. He was for several years a merchant in Richmond, and subsequently in Lynchburg, Virginia. A few years since, he emancipated his slaves, and removed to Hamil- ton County, Ohio, near Cincinnati ; where he is a highly respected ruhng elder in the Presbyterian church. He says, — I am pained exceedingly, and nothing but my duty to God, to the oppressors, and to the poor down-trodden slaves, v/ho go mourning all their days, could move me to say a word. I will state to y^ou a few cases of the abuse of the slaves, but time would fail, if I had language to tell how many and great are the inflictions of slavery, even in its mildest form. Benjamin James Hafris, a wealthy tobacconist of Richmond, Virginia, whipped a slave girl fifteen years old to death. While he was whip- ping her, his wife heated a smoothing iron, put it on her body in various places, and burned her severely. The verdict of the coroner's inquest was, " Died of excessive whipping." He was tried in Richmond, and acquitted. I attended the trial. Some years after, this same Harris whipped another slave to death. The man had not done so much work as was required of him. After a number of protracted and violent scourg- mgs, with short intervals between, the slave died under the lash. Harris was tried, and again acquitted, because none but blacks saw it done. The same man afterwards whipped another slave severely, for not doing work to please him. After repeated and severe floggings in quick succes- sion, for the same cause, the slave, in despair of pleasing him, cut off" his own hand. Harris soon after became a bankrupt, went to New Orleans to recruit his finances, failed, removed to Ken- tucky, became a maniac, and died. A captain in the United States' Navy, who married a daughter of the collector of the port of Richmond, and resided there, became ofTended with his negro boy, took him into the meat house, put him upon a stool, crossed his hands before him, tied a rope to them, threw it over a joist in the building, drew the boy up so that he could just stand on the stool with his toes, and kept him in that position, flogging him severely at intervals, until the boy became so exhausted that he reeled oflf the stool, and swung by liis hands until he died. The master was tried and acquitted. In Goochland County, Virginia, an overseer tied a slave to a tree, flogged him again and again with great severity, then piled brush around him, set it on fire, and burned him to death. The overseer was tried and imprisoned. The whole transaction may be found on the records of the court. In traveling, one day, from Petersburg to Richmond, Virginia, I heard cries of distress at a distance, on the road. I rode up, and found two white men, beating a slave. 'One of them had hold of a rope, which was passed under the bottom of a fence ; the other end was fastened around the neck of the slave, who was thrown flat on the ground, on his face, with his back bared. The other was beating him furiously with a large hickory. A slaveholder in Henrico County, Virginia, Privations of the Slaves — Food. 27 had a slave who used frequently to work for my father. One morning he came into the field with his back completely cut up, and mangled from his head to his heels. The man was so stiff and sore he could scarcely walk. This same person got offended with another of his slaves, knocked him down, and struck out one of his eyes with a maul. The eyes of several of his slaves were injured by similar violence. In Richmond, Virginia, a company occupied as a dwelling a large warehouse. They got an. gry with a negro lad, one of their slaves, took him into the cellar, tied his hands with a rope, bored a hole through the floor, and passed the rope up through it. Some of the family drew up the boy, while others whipped. This they continued until the boy died. The warehouse was owned by a Mr. Whitlock, on the scite of one formerly ov.ned by a Mr. Phil pot. Joseph Chilton, a resident of Campbell County, Virginia, purchased a quart of tanners' oil, for the purpose, as he said, of putting it on one of his negro's heads, that he had sometime previous pitched or tarred over, for running avv'ay. In the town of Lynchburg, Virginia, there was a negro man put in prison, charged with having pillaged some packages of goods, which he, as head man of a boat, received at Richmond, to be delivered at Lynchburg. The goods belonged to A. B. Nichols, of Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia. He came to Lynchburg, and desired the jailor topermithim to whip the negro, to make him confess, as there was no proof against him. Mr. Williams, (I think that is his name,) a pious Methodist man, a great stickler for law and good order, professedly a great friend to the black man, delivered the negro into the hands of Nichols. Nichols told me that he took the slave, tied his wrists together, then drew his arms down so far below his knees as to permit a staff to pass above the arms under the knees, thereby placing the slave in a situation that he could not move hand or foot. He then commenced his bloody work, and continued, at intervals, until 500 blows were inflicted. I received this state- ment from Nichols himself, who was, by the v.^ay, a son of the land oj " steady habits" where there are many like him, if we may judge from their writings, sayings, and doings. PRIVATIONS OF THE SLAVES. I. FOOD. We begin with the food of the slaves, because if they are ill treated in this respect we may be sure that they will be ill treated in other respects, and generally in a greater degree. For a man habitually to stint his dependents in their food, is th» extreme of meanness and cruelty, and the greatest evidence he can give of utter indiffer- ence to their comfort. The father who stints his children or domestics, or the master his appren- tices, or the employer his laborers, or the officer his soldiers, or the captain his crew, when able to furnish them with sufficient food, is every where looked upon as unfeeling and cruel. All mankind agree to call such a character inhuman. If any thing can move a hard heart, it is the ap- peal of hunger. The Arab robber whose whole life is a prowl for plunder, will freely divide his camel's milk with the hungry stranger who halts at his tent door, though he may have just waylaid him and stripped him of his money. Even sava- ges take pity on hunger. Who ever went fam- ishing irom an Indian's wigwam. As much as hunger craves, is the Indian's free gift even to an enemy. The necessity for food is such a universal want, so constant, manifest and impe. rative, that the heart is more touched with pity by the plea of hunger, and more ready to supply that want than any other. He who can habitu- ally inflict on others the pain of hunger by giv- ing them insufficient food, can habitually inflict on them any other pain. He can kick and cuff and flog and brand them, put them in irons or the stocks, can overwork them, deprive them of sleep, lacerate their backs, make them work with- out clothing, and sleep without covering. Other cruelties may be perpetrated in hoi blood and the act regretted as soon as done — the feeling that prompts them is not a permanent state of mind, but a violent impulse stung up by sudden provocation. But he who habitually withholds from his dependents sufficient suste- nance, can plead no such palliation. The fact itself shows, that his permanent state of mind toward them is a brutal indifference to their wants and sufferings — A state of mind which will naturally, necessarily, show itself in innu- merable privations and inflictions upon them, when it can be done with impunity. If, therefore, we find upon examination, that the slaveholders do not furnish their slaves with sufficient food, and do thus hab^ually inflict upon them the pain of hunger, we have a clue furnish- ed to their treatment in other respects, and may fairly infer habitual and severe privations and in- flictions ; not merely from the fact that men are quick to feel for those who suffer from hunger, and perhaps more ready to relieve that want than any other ; but also, because it is more for the interest of the slaveholder to supply that want than any other ; consequently, if the slave suffer in this respect, he must as the general rule, suffer 7nore in other respects. We now proceed to show that the slaves have 28 Privations of the Slaves — Food. insufficient food. This will be shown first from the express declarations of slaveholders, and other competent witnesses who are, or have been resi- dents of slave states, that the slaves generally are under-fed. And tlien, by the laws of slave states, and by the testimony of slaveholders and others, the kind, quantity, and quality, of their allowance will be given, and the reader left to judqje for himself whether the slave must not be a sufferer. THE SL*VES SUFFER FROM HUNGER — DECLARATIONS OF SLAVE-HOLDERS AND OTHERS WITNESSES. Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slave hold- er, and for ten ytars, Member of Congrcds from Virginia, hi his speech on the Missouri question. Jan 28tli, 1820. Rev. George Whitefield, in his letter, to the slave holders of Md. Va. N C. S. C. and Ga. published in Georgia, just one hundred years ago, 1739. Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, a native of Tennessee, and for some year's a preacher in slave states. Report of the Gradual Emancipation Society, of North Carolina, 18-2G. Sign- ed Mose| Swain, President, and Wil- liam Swain, Secretary. TESTIMONY. " By confining the slaves to the Southern states, where crops are raised for exportation, and bread and meat are purchased, you doom them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are ill fed." " My blood has frequently run cold within me, to think how many of your slaves ^ace not sufficient food to eat ; they are scarcely permitted to pick up the crumbs, that fall from their master's table." " Thousands of the slaves are pressed with the gnawings of cruel hunger during their whole lives." Speaking of the condition of slaves, in the eastern part of that state, the report says, — " The master puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for thejp^A sustenance, so that a great part of them go half starved inuch of the time." 5Ir. Asa A. Stone, a Theological Student, who resided near Natchez, Miss., in 1834-5. Thomas Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a Slaveholder. Mr. Tobias Boudinot, St. Albans, Ohio, a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. B. for some years navi- gated the Mississippi. President Edwards, the younger, in a sermon before the Conn. Abolition So- ciety, 1791. Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist Clergyman of Marlboro' Mass., who lived rive years in Georgia. Rev. George Bourne, late editor of the Protestant Vindicator, N. Y., who was seven years pastor of a cliurch in Virginia. Hon. Rober fumbull, a slavehold- er of Charleston, South Caroluia. f Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Beaver Co., Penn., who resided in Mis- sissippi, in 183G-7. Reuben G. Macy, a member of the Society of Friends, Hudson, N. Y., who resided in South Carolina. Mr- William Leftwich, a native of Virginia, and recently of Madison Co., Alabama, now member, of the Presby- terian Church, Delhi, Ohio. " On almost every plantation, the hands suffer more or less from hunger at some seasons of almost every year. There is s.lvja.ys a. good deal of suffering {rom hunger. On many planta- tions, and particularly in Louisiana, the slaves are in a condition of almost utter famishmeiit, during a great portion of the year." " From various causes this [the slave's allowance of food] is often not adequate to the support of a laboring man." " The slaves down the Mississippi, are half-starved, the boats, when they stop at night, are constantly boarded by slaves, begging for something to eat." " The slaves are supplied with barely enough to keep them from starving." " As a general thing on the plantations, the slaves suflTcr ex- tremely for the want of food." " The slaves are deprived of needful sustenance." 2. kinds OF FOOD. " The subsistence of the slaves consists, from March until August, of com ground into grits, or meal, made into what is called hominy, or baked into corn bread. The other six months, they are fed upon the sweet potatoe. Meat, when given, is only by way of indulgence or favor." " The food of the slaves was generally corn bread, and some, times meat or molasses.'' •' The slaves had no food allowed them besides corn, except- ing at Ciiristmas, when they had beef." " On my uncle's plantation, the food of the slaves, was com pone and a small allowance of meat." Privations of the Slaves — Food. 29 WiLMAM L.VDD, Esq., of Minot, Me., president of the American Peace Society, and formerly a slaveholder of Florida, gives the following testi- mony as to the allowance of food to slaves. " The usual food of the slaves was corn, with a modicum of salt. In some cases the master allowed no salt, but the slaves boOed the sea water for salt in their little pots. For about eight days near Christmas, i. e., from the Satur- day evening before, to the Monday evening after Christmas day, they were allowed some meat. They always with one single exception ground their corn in a hand-mill, and cooked their food themselves. Extract of a letter from Rev. D. C. Eastman, a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church, in Fayette county, Ohio. " In March, 1838, Mr. Thomas Larrimer, a deacon of the Presbyterian church in Blooming- bury, Fayette county, Ohio, Mr. G. S. Fullerton, merchant, and member of the same church, and Mr. William A. Ustick, an elder of the same church, spent a night with a Mr. Shep- herd, about 30 miles North of Charleston, S. ^., on the Monk's corner road. He owned Jwe families of negroes, who, he said, were Jed from the same meal and meat tubs as himself, but that 99 out of a 100 of all the slaves in that county saw meat but once a year, which was on Christmas holidays." As an illustration of the inhuman experiments sometimes tried upon slaves, in respect to the kind as well as the quality and quantity of their food, we solicit the attention of the reader to the testimony of the late General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. General Hampton was for some time commander in chief of the army on the Canada frontier during the last war, and at the time of his death, about three years since, was the largest slaveholder in the United States. The General's testimony is contained in the following extract of a letter, just received from a distin- guished clergymen in the west, extensively known both as a preacher and a writer. His name is with the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. " You refer in your letter to a statement made to you while in this place, respecting the late General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, and task me to write out for you ihe circumstances of the case — considering them well calculated to illustrate two points in the history of slavery : 1st, That the habit of slaveholding dreadfully blunts the feelings toward the slave, producing such insensibility that his sufferings and death are regarded with indifference. 2d, That the slave often has insufficient food, both in quantity and quality. " I received my information from a lady in the west of high respectability and great moral worth, — but think it best to withhold her name, although the statement was not made in confidence. "My informant stated that she sat at dinner once in company with General Wade Hampton, and several others ; that the conversation turned upon the treatment of their servants, &c. ; when the General undertook to entertain the company wi'th the relation of an experiment he had made in the feeding of his slaves on cotton seed. He said that he first mingled one-fourth cotton seed with three-fourths corn, on which they seemed to thrive tolerably well ; that he then had measured out to them equal quantities of each, which did not seem to produce any important change ; af- terwards he increased the quantity of cotton seed to three-fourths, mingled with one-fourth corn, and then he declared, with an oath, that ' they died like rotten sheep ! !' It is but justice to the lady to state that she spoke of his conduct with the utmost indignation ; and she mentioned also that he received no countenance from the com- pany present, but that all seemed to look at each other with astonishment. I give it to )rou just as I received it from one who was present, and whose character for veracity is unquestionable. " It is proper to add that I had previously formed an acquaintance with Dr. Witherspoon, now of Alabama, if alive ; whose former resi- dence was in South Carolina ; from whom I re- ceived a particular account of the manner of feeding and treating slaves on the plantations of General Wade Hampton, and others in the same part of the State ; and certainly no one could listen to the recital without concluding that such masters and overseers as he described must have hearts like the nether millstone. The cotton seed experiment I had heard of before also, as having been made in other parts of the south ; consequently, I was prepared to receive as true the above statement, even if I had not been so well acquainted with the high character of my informant." 2. QUANTITY OF FOOD. The legal allowance of food for slaves in North Carolina, is in the words of the law, " a quart of corn per day." See Haywood's Manual, 525. The legal allowance in Louisiana is more, a barrel [flour barrel] of corn, (in the ear,) or its equivalent in other grain, and a pint of salt a month. In the other slave states the amount of food for the slaves is left to the option of the master. WITNESSES. Thos. Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a slave holder, in his arlrtress before the Georgia Presbytery, 1833. The Maryland .Toumal, and Balti- more Advertiser, May 30. 1788. TESTIMONY. " The quantity allowed by custom is a peck of corn a week .' " A single peck of corn a week, or the like measure of rice, is the ordinary quantity of provision for a hard-working slave ; to which a small quantity of meat is occasionally, though rarely, added." 30 Privations of the Slaves — Food. Georgia, and Elder in the Presbyterian Church, Wilksbarre, Penn. Wm. Ladd, of Minot, Maine, former- ly a slaveliolder in Florida. W. C. Gildersleevc, Esq., a native of " The weekly allowance to grown slaves on this plantation, where 1 was best acquainted, was one peck of corn." " The usual allowance of food was one quart of corn a day, to a full task hand, with a modicum of salt ; kind masters allow- ed apecA; 0/ corn oti^ee/:; some masters allowed no salt." " The allowance of provisions for the slaves, is one peck of corn, in the grain, per week." " In Georgia the planters give each slave only one peck of their gourd seed corn per week, with a small quantity of salt." " The food of the slaves was three pecks of potatos a week during the potato season, and one peck of corn, during the re- mainder of the year." " The subsistence of the slaves, consists of seven quarts of meal or eight quarts of small rice for one week I Mr. Jarvis Brewster, in his " Exposi- tion of the tiuatment of slaves in the Southern States," published in N. Jersey, 1815. Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist Clergyman of Marlboro', Mass., who lived five years in Georgia. Mr. F. C. Mncy, Nantucket, Mass., who resided in Georgia in 1820. Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, a member of the Baptist Church in Waterford, Conn., who resided in North Carolina, eleven winters. William Savery, late of Philadelphia, an eminent Minister of the Society of Friends, who travelled extensively in the slave states, on a Religious Visi- tation, speaking of the subsistence of the slaves, says, in liis published Journal, The late John Parrish, of Philadelphia, anotljpr highly re.spected Mhiister of the isociety of Friends, who traversed the South, on a similar mission, in 1804 and 5, says in his " Remarks on tlie slavery of Blacks ;" " A peck of corn is their (the slaves,) miserable subsistence for a week." " They allow them but one peck of meal, for a whole week, in some of the Southern states." Richard Macy, Hudson, N., Y. a Member of the Society of Friends, who has resided in Georgia. Rev. C. S. Renshaw, of Quincy, Dl., (the testimony of a Virginian.) " Their usual allowance of food was one peck of corn per week, which was dealt out to them every first day of the week. They had nothing allovv^ed them besides the corn, except one quarter of beef at Christmas." " The slaves are generally allowanced : a pint of corn meal and a salt herring is the allowance, or in lieu of the herring a " dab" of fat meat of about the same value. I have known the sour milk, and clauber to be served out to the hands, when there was an abundance of milk on the plantation. This is a luxury not often afforded." Testimony of Mr. George W. Westgate, member of the Congregational Church, of Quincy, Illi- nois. Mr. W. has been engaged in the low country trade for twelve years, more than half of each year, principally on the Mississippi, and its tributary streams in the south-western slave states. " Feeding is not sufficient, — let facts speak. On the coast, i. e. Natchez and the Gulf of Mexico, the allowance was one barrel of ears of corn, and a pint of salt per month. They may cook this in what manner they please, but it must be done after dark ; they have no day light to prepare it by. Some few planters, but only a few, let them prepare their com on Saturday afternoon. Planters, overseers, and negroes, have told me, that in pinching times, i. e. when corn is high, they did not get near that quantity. In Miss., I know some planters who allowed their hands three and a halt pounds of meat per vs'eek, when it was cheap. Many prepare their corn on the Sabbath, when they are not worked on that day, which however is frequently the case on sugar plantations. There are very many masters on " the coast" who will not suffer their slaves to come to the boats, be- cause they steal molasses to barter for meat; indeed they generally trade more or less with stolen property. But it is impossible to find out what and when, as their articles of barter are of such trifling importance. They would often come on board our boats to beg a bone, and would tell how badly they were fed, that they were almost starved ; many a time I have set up all night, to pre- vent them from stealing something to eat." 3. ClUALITY OF FOOD. Having ascertained the kind and quantity of food allowed to the slaves, it is important to know something of its quality, that we may judge of tiie amount of sustenance which it contains. For, if their provisions are of an inferior quality, or in a damaged state, then, power to sustain labor must be greatly diminished. WITNESSES. » TESTIMONY. Thomas Clay, Esc), of Georgia, in an aiiilrc 5;^ to tlic Georcia Prcsbytcrv, 1834, ,, mi ■ rt j r a i m epvaking of the quality of the corn giveii ^ '^^^^ >» "/ <«» <» a«/«<^' *«''«• to the slaves, says. Privations of the Slaves — Food. 31 Rev. Horace Moulton, a Methodist clergyman at Marlboro', Mass. aiid five years a resident of Georgia. The "Western Medical Reformer," in an article on tlie diseases peculiar to negroes, by a Kentucky pliysician, says of the diet of the slaves ; Professor A. G. Smith , of the New York Medical College ; formerly a phy- sician in Louisville, Kentucky. " The food, or ' feed ' of slaves is generally of the poorest kind." " Thev live on a coarse, crude, unwholesome diet." I have myself known numerous instances of large families of badly fed negroes swept off by a prevailing epidemic; and it is well known to many intelligent planters in the south, that the best method of preventing that horrible malady, Chachexia Africana, is to feed the nesrroes with nutritious food. 4. NUMBER AND TIME OF MEALS EACH DAY. In determining whether or not the slaves suffer for want of food, the number of hours intervening, and the labor performed between their meals, and the number of meals each day, should be taken into consideration. WITNESSES. Philemon Bliss, Esq., a laviryer in Elyria, Ohio, and member of the Presby- terian churcli, who lived • in Florida, in 1834, and 1835. President Edwards, the younger. Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Bea- ver county, Perm., who resided in Mis- sissippi in 1836 and 1837. Mr. Nehemiah Caulkins, Waterford, Conn., who spent eleven winters in North Carolina. Rev. Phineas Smitli, Centreville, N. Y., who has lived at the south some years. Rev. C. S. Renshaw, Quincy, Illinois, -the testimony of a Virginian. TESTIMONY. " The slaves go to the field in the morning ; they carry witJi them corn meal wet with water, and at noon build a fire on the ground and bake it in the ashes. After the labors of the day are over, they take their second meal of ash-cake." •' The slaves eat twice during the day." " The slaves received two meals during the day. Those who have their food cooked for them get their breakfast about eleven o'clock, and their other meal after night." " The breakfast of the slaves was generally about ten or eleven o'clock." " The slaves have usually two meals a day, viz : at eleven o'clock and at night." " The slaves have two meals a day. They breakfast at from ten to eleven, A. M., and cat their supper at from six to nine or ten at night, as the season and crops may be." The preceding testimony establishes the fol- lowing points, 1st. That the slaves are allowed, in general, no meat. This appears from the fact, that in the only slave states which regulate the slaves' rations bylaw, (North Carolina and Louisiana,) the legal ration contains 7io meat. Besides, the late Hon. R. J. TurnbuU, one of the largest planters in South Carolina, says expressly, " meat, when given, is only by the way of indulgence or favor." It is shown also by the direct testimony recorded above, of slaveholders and others, in all parts of the slaveholding south and west, that the gene- ral allowance on plantations is corn or meal and salt merely. To this there are doubtless many exceptions, but they are only exceptions ; the number of slaveholders who furnish meat for their field-hands, is small, in comparison with the number of those who do not. The house slaves, that is, the cooks, chambermaids, waiters, &c., generally get some meat every day ; the remain- der bits and bones of their masters' tables. But that the great body of the slaves, those that compose the field gangs, whose labor and expo- sure, and consequent exhaustion, are vastly greater than those of house slaves, toiling as they do from day light till dark, in the fogs of the early morn- ing, under the scorchings of mid- day, and amid the damps of evening, are in general provided with no meat, is abundantly established by the preceding testimony. Now we do not say that meat is necessary to sustain men under hard and long continued labor, nor that it is not. This is not a treatise on dietetics ; but it is a notorious fact, that the medical facul- ty in this country, with very few exceptions, do most strenuously insist that it is necessary ; and that working men in all parts of the country do believe that meat is indispensable to sustain them, even those who work within doors, and only ten hours a day, every one knows. Further, it is no- torious, that the slaveholders themselves believe the daily use of meat to be absolutely necessary to the comfort, not merely of those who labor, but of those who are idle, is proved by the fact of meat being a part of the daily ration of food provided for convicts in the prisons, in every one of the slave states, except in those rare cases where meat is expressly prohibited, and the con- vict is, by wai/ of extra punishment confined to 32 Privations of the Slaves — Food. bread and water ; lie is occasionally, and for a lit- tle time only, confined to bread and water; that is, to the ordinary diet of slaves, with this differ- ence in favor of the convict : his bread is made for him, whereas the slave is forced to pound or grind his own corn and make his own bread, when ex- hausted with toil. The preccdint^ testimony shows also, that vegetables form generally no part of the slaves' allowance. The sole food of the majority is corn : at every meal — from day to day — from week to week — from month to month, corn. In South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, the sweet pota- to is, to a considerable extent, substituted for corn during a part of the year. 2d, The preceding testimony proves conclu- Eively, that the quantity of food generally allow- ed to a full-grown field-hand, is a peck of corn a week, or a fraction over a quart and a gill of corn a day. The legal ration of North Carolina is less — in Louisiana it is more. Of the slave- holders and other witnesses, who give the fore- going testimony, the reader will perceive that no one testifies to a larger allowance of com than a peck for a week ; though a number testify, that within the circle of their knowledge, seven quarts was the usual allowance. Frequently a small quantity of meat is added ; but this, as has al- ready been shown, is not the general rule for feld.hands. We may add, also, that in the sea- son of " pumpkins," " cimblins," " cabbages," " greens," &c., the slaves on small plantations are, to some extent, furnished with those articles. Now, without entering upon the vexed ques- tion of how much food is necessary to sustain the human system, under severe toil and exposure, and without giving the opinions of physiologists as to the insufficiency or sufficiency of the slaves' allowance, we affirm that all civilized nations have, in all ages, and in the most emphatic man- ner, declared, tjiat eight quarts of corn a week, (the usual allowance of our slaves,) is utterly in- sufficient to sustain the human body, under such toil and exposure as that to which the slaves are subjected. To show this fully, it will be necessary to make some estimates, and present some statistics. And first, the northern reader must bear in mind, that the com furnished to the slaves at the south, is almost invariably the white gourd seed corn, and tliat a quart of this kind of corn weighs five or six ounces less than a quart of " flint com," the kind generally raised in the northern and eastern states ; consequently a peek of the com generally given to the slaves, would be only equivalent to a fraction more than six quarts and a pint of the corn commonly raised in the New England States, New York, New Jersey, &,c. N^ow, what would be said of t^« northern capital- ist, who should allow his laborers but six quart, and five gills of corn for a week's provisions ? Further, it appears in evidence, that the com given to the slaves is often defective. This, the reader will recollect, is the voluntary testimony of Thomas Clay, Esq., the Georgia planter, whose testimony is given above. When tliis is the case, the amount of actual nutriment contained in a peck of the " gourd seed," may not be more than in five, or four, or even three quarts of " flint corn." As a quart of southern corn weighs at least five ounces less than a quart of northern com, it requires little arithmetic to perceive; that the daily allowance of the slave fed upon that kind of corn, would contain about one third of a pound less nutriment than though his daily ration were the same quantity of northem com, which would amount, in a year, to more than a hundred and twenty pounds of human sustenance ! which would furnish the slave with his full allowance of a peck of com a week for two months ! It is unnecessary to add, that this difference in the weight of the two kinds of com, is an item too important to be overlooked. As one quart of the southern com weighs one pound and eleven-six- teenths of a pound, it follows that it would be about one pound and six-eighths of a pound. We now solicit the attention of the reader to the fol- lowing unanimous testimony, of the civilized world, to the utter insufficiency of this amount of food to sustain human beings under labor. This testimony is to be found in the laws of all civil- ized nations, which regulate the rations of sol diers and sailors, disbursements made by govern, ments for the support of citizens in times of pub lie calamit}', the allowance to convicts in prisons &c. We will begin with the United States. The daily ration for each United States' soldier established by act of Congress, May 30, 1796 was the following : one pound of beef, one pount of bread, half a gill of spirits ; and at the rate ol one quart of salt, two quarts of vinegar, two pounds of soap, and one pound of candles U every hundred rations. To those soldiers " wh( were on the frontiers," (where the labor and ex posure were greater,) the ration was one pouno two ounces of beef and one pound two ounces of bread. Laws U. S. vol. 3d, sec. 10, p. 431. After an experiment of two years, the preccd- ing ration being found insufficient, it was in- creased, by act of Congress, July 16, 1798, and was as follows : beef one pound and a quarter, bread one pound two ounces ; salt two quarts, vinegar four quarts, soap four pounds, and can- dies one and a half pounds to the hundred ra tions. The preceding allowance was afterwards still further increased. The pesent daily ration for the United States' Privations of the Slaves — ^Food. 33 soldiers, is, as we learn from an advertisement of Captain Fulton, of the United States' army, in a late number of the Riehmond (Va.) Enquirer, as follows : one and a quarter pounds of beef, one and three-sixteenths pounds of bread ; and at the rate of eight quarts of beans, eight pounds of sugar, four pounds of coffee, two quarts of salt, four pounds of candles, and four pounds of soap, to every hundred rations. We. have before us the daily rations provided for the emigrating Ottawa Indians, two years since, and for the emigrating Cherokees last fall. They were the same — one pound of fresh beef, one pound of flour, &-C. The daily ration for the United States' navy, is fourteen ounces of bread, half a pound of beef, six ounces of pork, three ounces of rice, three ounces of peas, one ounce of cheese, one ounce of sugar, half an ounce of tea, one-third of a gill molasses. The daily ration in the British army is one and a quarter pounds of beef, one pound of bread, &c. The daily ration in the French army is one pound of beef, one and a half pounds of bread, one pint of wine, &c. The common daily ration for foot soldiers on the continent, is one pound of meat, and one and a half pounds of bread. The sea ration among the Portuguese, has be- come the usual ration in the navies of European powers generally. It is as follows : " one and a half pounds of biscuit, one pound of salt meat, one pint of wine, with some dried fish and onions." Prison Rations. — Before giving the usual daily rations of food allowed to convicts, in the principal prisons in the United States, we will quote the testimony of the " American Prison Discipline Society," which is as follows : " The common allowance of food in the peni- tentiaries, is equivalent to one pound of meat, ONE POUND of bread, AND ONE POUND OF VEGETA- BLES PER DAY. It varies a little from this in some of them, but it is generally equivalent to it." First Report of American Prison Discipline So- ciety, page 13. The daily ration of food to each convict, in the principal prisons in this country, is as follows : In the New Hampshire State Prison, one and a quarter pounds of meal, and fourteen ounces of beef, for breakfast and dinner ; and for sup- per, a soup or porridge of potatos and beans, or peas, the quantity not limited. In the Vermont prison, the convicts are al- lowed to eat as much as they wish. In the Massachusetts' penitentiary, one and a half pounds of bread, fourteen ounces of meat, half a pint of potatos, and one gill of molasses, or one pint of milk. In the Connecticut State Prison, one pound of beef, one pound of bread, two and a half pounds of potatos, half a gill of molasses, with salt, pepper, and vinegar. In the New York State Prison, at Auburn, one pound of beef, twenty-two ounces of floui and meal, half a gill of molasses ; with two quarts of rye, four quarts of salt, two quarts of vinegar, one and a half ounces of pepper, and two and a half bushels of potatos to every hun- dred rations. In the New York State Prison at Sing Sing, one pound of beef, eighteen ounces of flour and meal, besides potatos, rye coffee, and molasses. In the New York City Prison, one pound of beef, one pound of flour ; and three pecks of po- tatos to every hundred rations, with other small articles. In the New Jersey State Prison, one pound of bread, half a pound of beef, with potatos and cabbage, (quantity not specified,) one gill of molasses, and a bowl of mush for supper. In the late Walnut Street Prison, Philadel- phia, one and a half pounds of bread and meal, half a pound of beef, one pint of potatos, one gill of molasses, and half a gill of rye, for coffee. In the Baltimore prison, we believe the ration is the same with the preceding. In the Pennsylvania Eastern Penitentiary, one pound of bread and one pint of coffee for break- fast, one pint of meat soup, with potatos without limit, for dinner, and mush and molasses for sup- per. In the Penitentiary for the District of Colum- bia, Washington city, one pound of beef, twelve ounces of Indian meal, ten ounces of wheat flour, half a gill of molasses ; with two quarts of rye, four quarts of salt, four quarts of vinegar, and two and a half bushels of potatos to every hun- dred rations. Rations in English Prisons. — The daily ra- tion of food in the Bedfordshire Penitentiary, is two pounds of bread; and if at hard labor, a quart of soup for dinner. In the Cambridge County House of Correction, three pounds of bread, and one pint of beer. In the Millbank General Penitentiary, one and a half pounds of bread, one pound of potatos, six ounces of beef, with half a pint of broth there- from. In the Gloucestershire Penitentiary, one and a half pounds of bread, three-fourths of a pint of peas, made into soup, with beef, quantity not stated. Also gruel, made of vegetables, quantity not stated, and one and a half ounces of oatmeal mixed with it. In the Leicestershire House of Correction, two pounds of bread, and three pints of gruel ; and when at hard labor, one pint of milk in addition. M Privations of the Slaves — Food. and twice a week a pint of meat soup at dinner, instead of gruel. In the Buxton House of Correction, one and a half pounds of bread, one and a half pints of gruel, one and a half pints of soup, four-fifths of a pound of potatos, and two-sevenths of an ounce of beef. Notwithstanding the preceding daily ration in the Buxton Prison is about double the usual daily allowance of our slaves, yet the visiting physicians decided, that for those prisoners v.'ho were required to work the tread.mill, it was en- tirely insufficient. This question was considered at length, and publicly discussed at the sessions of tjic Surry magistrates, with the benefit of medical advice ; which resulted in " large addi. tions" to the rations of those who worked on the tread.mill. See London Morning Chronicle, Jan. 13, 1830. To the preceding we add the ration of the Ro- man slaves. The monthly allowance of food to slaves in Rome was called " Dimensum." The " Dimensum" was an allowance of wheat or of other grain, which consisted of five modii a month to each slave Ainsworth, in his Latin Dictionary estimates the moditis, when used for the measurement of grain, at a peck and a half our measure, which would make the Roman slave':? allowance two quarts of grain a day, just double the allowance provided for the slave by law in North Carolina, and six quarts more per week than the ordinary allowance of slaves in the slave states generallj', as already established by the testimony of slaveholders themselves. But it roust by no means be overlooked that this '• dimensum," or monthly allowance, was far from being the sole allowance of food to Roman slaves. In addition to this, they had a stated daily allow- ance {diariuni) besides a monthly allowance of money, amounting to about a cent a day. Now without further trencliing on the reader's time, we add, compare the preceding daily allow, ances of food to soldiers and sailors in this and other countries ; to convicts in this and other countries ; to bodies of emigrants rationed at public expense ; and finally, with the fixed al- lowance given to Roman slaves, and we find the states of this Union, the slave states as well as the free, the United States' government, the dif- ferent European governments, the old Roman empire, in fine, we may add, the world, ancient and modern, uniting in the testimony that to furnish men at hard labor from daylight till dark v/ith but 1^ lbs. of corn per day, their sole suste- nance, is to MURBER TUEM BY PIECE-MEAL. TllC reader will perceive by examining the preceding statistics that the average daily ration throughout thhs country and Europe exceeds the usual slave's allowance at least a pound aday; also that one- third of this ration for soldiers and convicts in the Unitei States, and for soldiers and sailors in Europe, is meat, generally beef ; whereas the al- lowance of the mass of our slaves is corn, only- Further, the convicts in our prisons are sheltered from the heat of the sun, and from the damps of the early morning and evening, from cold, rain, &c. ; . whereas, the great body of the slaves are exposed to all of these, in their season, from day- light till dark ; besides this, they labor more hours in the day than convicts, as will be shown under another head, and are obliged to prepare and cook their own food after they have finished the labor of the day, while the convicts have theirs prepared for them. These, with other cir- cumstances, necessarily make larger and longer draughts upon the strength of the slave, produce consequently greater exhaustion, and demand a larger amount of food to restore and sustain the laborer than is required by the convict in hia ' briefer, less exposed, and less exliausting toils. That the slaveholders themselves regard the usual allowance of food to slaves as insufficient, both in kind and quantity, for hard-working men, is shown by the fact, that in all the slave states, we believe without exception, white convicts at hard labor, have a much larger allowance of food than the usual one of slaves ; and generally more than one third of this daily allowance is meat. This conviction of slaveholders shows itself in various forms. When persons wish to hire slaves to labor on public works, in addition to the m. ducement of high wages held out to masters to liire out their slaves, the contractors pledge them- selves that a certain amount of food shall be given the slaves, taking care to specify a larger amount than the usual allowance, and a part of it meat. The following advertisement is an illustration. We copy it from the "Daily Georgian," Savan- nah, Dec. 14, 1838. NEGROES WANTED. The Contractors upon the Brunswick and Al atamaha Canal are desirous to hire a number of prime Negro Men, from the 1st October next, for fifteen months, until the 1st January, 1840. They will pay at the rate of eighteen dollars per month for each prime hand. These negroes will be employed in the exca- vation of the Canal. They will be provided with three and a half pounds of pork or baron, and ten quarts of gourd seed corn per ircek, lodged in comfortable shantees, and attended constantly by a skilful physician. J. H. CoUPF.R, p. M. Nightingale. But we have direct testimony to this point. The late Hon. John Taylor, of Caroline Co. Vir. ginia, for many years Senator in Congress, and for many years president of the Agricultural So- Privations of the Slaves — Labor. 35 ciety of the State, says in his "Agricultural Es- Kays," No. 30, page 97, " Bread alone ought NEVER TO BE CONSIDERED A SUFFICIENT DIET FOR SLAVES EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT." He urgcs Upon the planters of Virginia to give their slaves, in ad- dition to bread, " salt meat and vegetables," and adds, " we shall be astonished to discover upon trial, that this great comfort to them is a profit to the master." The Managers of the American Prison Disci- pline Society, in their third Report, page 58, say, " In the Penitentiaries generally, in the United States, the animal food is equal to one pound of meat per day for cacli convict." Most of tiie actual suiFering from hunger on tlie part of the slaves, is m the sugar and cotton-grow- ing region, where the crops are exported and the corn generally purchased from the upper country. Where this is the cafee there cannot but be suffer- ing. The contingencies of bad crops, difficult transportation, high prices, &c. &c., naturally occasion short and often precarious allowances. The following extract from a New Orleans paper of April 26, 1837, affords an illustration. The writer in describing the effects of the tnoney pressure in Mississippi, says : " They, (the planters,) are now left without provisions and the means of living and using their industry, for the present year. In this dilemma, planters whose crops have been from 100 to 700 bales, find themselves forced to sacrifice many of their slaves in order to get the common necessaries of life for the support of themselves and the rest of their negroes. In many places, heavy planters compel their slaves to fish for the means of sub- sistence, rather than sell them at such ruinous rates. There are at this moment THOUSANDS OF SLAVES in Mississippi, that KNOW NOT WHERE THE NEXT MORSEL IS TO COME FROM. The master ?nvst be ruined to save the wretches from being STARVED " II. LABOR. THE SLAVES ARE OVERWORKED. This is abundantly proved by the number of hours that the slaves are obliged to be in the field. But before furnishing testimony as to their hours of labor and rest, we will present the express decla- rations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are severely driven in the field. WITNESSES. The Senate and House of Represent- atives of the State of South Carolina. History of Carolina. — ^Vol. i, page 130. Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slavehold- er, and member of Congress from Vir- ginia, m his speech on tlie " Missouri il.l and testament, it is fair to infer that it would be very liberal, far better than the ordinary allow- ance for slaves. Now vvc leave the reader to judge wh.at must Privations of the Slaves — Dwellings. 43 be the usual allowance of clothing to common i annually, with but one blanket each for bedding, field slaves in the hands of common masters, with no s; he published a work entitled " The Book and Slavery irri- concileable." TESTIMONY OF ANGELINA GRIMKE WELD. Mrs. Weld is the youngest daughter of the late Judge Grimke, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and a sister of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston. Fort Lee, Bergen Co., New Jersey, } Fourth month 6th, 1839. S I sit down to cotiiply with thy retiuest, prefer- red in the name of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The re- sponsibility laid upon me by such a request, leaves me no option. While I live, and slavery lives, I must testify against it. If I should hold my peace, " the stone would cry out of the vi'all, and the beam out of the timber would answer it." But though I feel a necessity upon me, and " a woe unto me," if I withhold my testimony, I give it with a heavy heart. My flesh crieth out, " if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ;" but, " Father, thy will be done," is, I trust, the breathing of my spirit. Oh, the slain of the daughter of my people ! they lie in all the ways ; their tears fall as the rain, and are their meat day and night ; their blood runneth down like water ; their plundered hearths aie desolate ; they weep for their husbands and children, be- cause they are not ; and the proud waves do con. tinually go over them, while no eye pitieth, and no man careth for their souls. But it is not alone for the sake of my poor brothers and sisters in bonds, or for the cause ol truth, and righteousness, and humanity, that I testify ; the deep yearnings of affection for the mother that bore me, who is still a slaveholder, both in fact and in heart ; for my brothers anri sisters, (a large family circle,) and for my nu- merous other slaveholding kindred in South Ca- rolina, constrain me to speak : for even wen- slavery no curse to its victims, the exercise of arbitrary power works such fearful ruin upon the hearts of slaveholders, that I should feel impelled to labor and pray for its overthrow with my last energies and latest breath. I think it important to premise, that I havf seen almost nothing of slavery on plantations. My testimony will have respect exclusively to the treatment of " konse-servants," and chiefly those belonging to the first families in the city of Charleston, both in the religious and in the fash- ionable world. And here let mc say, that the Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimk6 Weld. 53 treatment of plantation slaves cannot be fully known, except by the poor pufFerers themselves, and their drivers and overseers. In a multitude of instances, even the master can know very lit- tie of the actual condition of his own field-slaves, and his wife and daughters far less. A few facts concerning my own famil}- will show this. Our permanent residence was in Charleston ; our country-scat (Bellemont,) was 200 miles distant, in the north-western part of the state ; where, for some years, our family spent a few months annu- ally. Our plantation was three miles from this i'amily mansion. There, all the held-slaves lived and worked. Occasionally, once a month, per- haps, some of the familv would ride over to the plantation, but I never vh'iieAihn fields vihcrc the xlaves were at icork, and knew almost notliing of their condition ; but this I do know, that the overseers who had charge of them, were gene- rally unprincipled and intemperate men. But I rejoice to know, that the general treatment of slaves in that region of country, was far milder than on the plantations in the lower country. Throughout ail the eastern and middle por- tions of the state, the planters very rarely reside permanently on tlieir plantations. They have almost invariably two residences, and spend less than half the year on their estates. Even while spending a few months on them, politics, field- sports, races, speculations, journeys, visits, com- pany, literary pursuits, &c., absorb so much of their time, that they mu.st, to a considerable ex- tent, take the condition of their slaves on trust, from the reports of their overseers. I make this statement, because these slaveholders (the wealth- ier class,) are, I believe, almost the only ones who visit the north with their families ; — and northern opinions of slavery are based chiefly on their tes- timony. But not to dwell on preliminaries, I wish to record my testimony to the faithfulness and ac- curacy with which my beloved sister, Sarah M. Grimkd, has, in her ' narrative and testimony,' on a preceding page, described the condition of the slaves, and the effect upon the hearts of slave- holders, (even the best,) caused by the exercise of unlimited power over moral agents. Of the particular acts which she has stated. I have no ])crsonal knowledge, as they occurred before my remembrance ; but of the spirit that prompted them, and that constantly display's itself in scenes of similar liorror, the recollections of my child- hood, and the elFaceless imprint upon my riper years, witli the breaking of my heart-strings, when, finding that I was powerless to shield the victims, I tore myself from my home and friends, and became an exile among strangers — all these throng aroimd me as witnesses, and their testi- mony is graven on my memory with a pen of fire. Why I did not become totally hardened, under llic daily operation of this system, God only knows; in deep solemnity and gratitude, I sav, it was the Lord''s doing, and marvellous in mine o}-es. Even before my heart was touclicd with the love of Christ, I used to say, " Oh that I had th.e wings of a dove, that I might flee away and bo at rest ;' for I felt that there could be no rest for me in the midst of such outrages and pollutions. .\nd yet I saw nothing of slavery in its most vulgar and repulsive forms. I saw it in the city, among the fashionable and the honorable, where it was garnished by rcflnement, and decked out for show. A few facts will unfold the state of society in the circle with which I was familiar, far better than any general assertions I can make. I will first introduce the reader to a woman of the highest respectability — one who was fore- most in every benevolent enterprise, and stood for many years, I may say, at the head of the fashionable elite of the city of Charleston, and afterwards at the head of the moral and religious female society there. It was after she had made a profession of religion, and retired from the fashionable world, that I knew her •, therefore I will present her in her religious eharacler. Thiw lady used to keep cowhides, or small paddles, (called ' pancake sticks,') in four diflerent apart- ments in her house ; so that when she wished to punish, or to have punished, Viuy of her slaves, she might not have the trouble of sending for an in- strument of torture. For many years, one or other, and often more of her slaves, were flogged erierx/ day; particularly tlic young slaves about the house, whose faces were slaitjicd, or their hands beat Vv-itli the 'pancake stick,' for every trifling offence — and often for no fault at all. But the floggings were not all ; tlie scohlings and abuse daily heaped upon them all, were worse: 'fools' and 'liars,' ' sluts' and ' Imsseys,' 'hypocrites' and 'good-for-nothing creatures,' were tlie common epithets with which her mouth was filled, when addressing her slaves, adults as well as children. Very often she would take a position at her window, in an upper story, and scold at her slaves while working in the garden. at some distance from (lie house, (a large yard intervening,) and occasionally order a flogging. I have known her thus on the watch, scolding for more than an hour at a time, in so loud a voice that the whole neighborhood could hear her ; and this without the least apparent feeling of shame. Indeed, it was no disgrace among slaveholders, and did not in the least injure her standing, either as a lady or a Christian, in the aristocratic circle in which she moved. After the 'revival' in Charleston, in 1825, she opened her house to social prayer-meetings. The room in which they were held in the evening, and where the voice of prayer was heard around the family altar, and where she herself retired for private devotion thrice each day, was the very place in which, when her slaves were to be whip- I)ed with the cowhide, they were taken to receive the infliction ; and the wail of the sufferer would be heard, where, perhaps only a few hours pre- vious, rose the voices of prayer and praise. This mistress would occasionally send her slaves, male and female, to the Charleston work-house to be punished. One poor girl, whom she sent there to be flogged, and who was accordingly stripped naked and whipped, showed me the deep gashes on her back — I might have laid my whole finger in them — large pieces of flesh had actually been cut 07it by the torturing lash. She sent another female slave there, to be imprisoned and worked on the tread-mill. This girl was confined several days, and forced to work tiie mill while in a state of suffering from another cause. For ten dav^ or two weeks after her return, she was Ijime^ from 54 Personal J^analives — Anoelina Grimke Weld. tlic violent exertion necessary to enable her to keep the step on the machine. She spoke tome witii intense I'celing of tiiis outrage upon her, as a wuman. Her men servants were sometimes flo<5jrcd there ; and so cxeeedin lo his lil)prty ac- rording to .Jewish l:iw, he was a niulaltn, and thrreCore free nndir th<' CoMStitu'ion of tlio L'nitod States, in whosi" nrr- ainblr- our fathers declare that thoy pstal)li-j!'ed it ej[|irii«l^ t()."serure the blcs-singsof /ificr/y to tlicu.jclvcs and JAeit postmity." — Ed. Personal Narratives — Angelina Grimke Weld. 55 ooy whose head had been shaved in order to dis- grace liiin, and he had bci'n so dreadfully whip- ped that he could hardly walk. So horrible was the impression produced upon my mind by his heart-broken countenance and crippled person that I fainted away. The sad and ghastly coun- tenance of one of their female mulatto slaves who used to sit on a low stool at her sewing in the piazza, is now fresh before me. She often told me, secretly, how cruelly she was whipped when they sent her to the work house. I had known so much of the terrible scourgings inflicted in that house of blood, that when I was once obliged to pass it, the very sight smote me vpith such horror that my limbs could hardly sustain me. I felt as if I was passing the precincts of hell. A friend of mine who Jived in the neighborhood, told me she often heard the screams of the slaves under their torture. I once heard a physician of a high family, and of great respectability in his profession, say, that when he sent his sla<'es to the work-house to be flogged, he always went to see it done, that he might be sure they were properly, i. e. severely whipped. He also related the following circum- stance in my presence. He had sent a youth of about eighteen to this horrible place to be whip- ped and aftenoards to be worked upon the tread- mill. From not keeping the step, which probably he COULD NOT do, in consequence of the lacerated state of his body ; his arm got terriljly torn, from the shoulder to the wrist. This phj^scian said, he went every day to attend to it himself, in order that he might use those restoratives, which would inflict the greatest possible pain. This poor boy, after being imprisoned there for some weeks, was then brought home, and compelled to wear iron clogs on his ankles for one or two months. I saw him with those irons on one day when I was at the house. This man was, when young, re- markable in the fashionable world for his elegant and fascinating manners, but the exercise of the slaveholder's power has thrown the fierce air of tyranny even over these. I heard another man of equally high standing Bay, that he believed he suffered far more than his waiter did, whenever he flogged him, for he felt the exertion for days afterward, but he could not let his servant go on in tlie neglect of his business, it was his duti/ to chastise him. " His duty" to flog this boy of seventeen so severely that he felt t/ie exertion for days after \ and yet he never felt it to be his duty to instruct him, or have him in- structed, even in the common principles of mo- rality. I heard the mother of this man say, it would be no surprise to her, if he killed a slave some day, for, that, when transported witii pas- sion he did not seem to care what he did. He once broke a large stick over tlie back of a slave, and at anotlier time the ivory butt-end of a long coach whip over the head of another. This last was attacked with epileptic fits some months after, and has ever since been subject to them, and occasionallj' to violent fits of insanity. Southern mistresses sometimes flog their slaves themselves, though generally one slave is com- pelled to flog another. Whilst staying at a friend's house some vears ago, I one day saw the mistress with a cow-hide in her hand, and heard her scold- ing in an under tone, her waiting man, who was about twenty-five years old. Whether she actu- ally inflicted the blows I do not know, for I hast- ened out of sight and hearing. It was not the first time I had seen a mistress thus engaged. I knew she was a cruel mistress, and had lieard her daughters disputing, whether their mother did right or wrong, to send the slave children, (whom f-he sent out to sweep chimneys) to the work house to be whipped if they did not bring in their wages regularly. This woman moved in the most fashionable circle in Charleston. The income of this family was derived mostly from the hire of their slaves, about one hundred in number. Their luxuries were blood-bought luxuries indeed. And yet what stranger would ever have inferred their cruelties from the courteous reception and bland manners of the parlor. Every thing cruel and revolting is carefidly concealed from strangers, especially those from the north. Take an In- stance. I have known the master and mistress of a family send to their friends to borrow ser- vants to wait on company, because their own slaves had been so cruelly flogged in the work house, that they could not walk without limping at every step, and their putrified flesh emitted such an intolerable smell thai they were not fit to be in the presence of company. How can northerners know these things when they are hospitably re- ceived at southern tables and firesides ? I repeat it, no one who has not been an integral part of a slaveiiolding comnmnity, can have any idea of its abominations. It is a whited sepulchre full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Blessed be God, the Angel of Truth has descended and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the se- pulchre, and sits upon it. The abominations so long hidden are now brought forth before all Israel and the sun. Yes, the Angel of Truth sits upon this stone, and it can never be rolled back again. The utter disregard of the comfort of the slaves, in little things, can scarcely be conceived by those who have not been a component part of slaveiiolding communities. Take a few particu- lars out of hundreds that might be named. In South Carolina musketoes swarm in myi-iads, more than half the ye:\.r — they are so excessively annoying at night, that no family thinks of sleep- ing without nets or " musketoe-bars" hung over their bedsteads, yet slaves are never provided with them, unless it be the favorite old domestics who get the cast-off pavilions; and yet these very mas. ters and mistresses will be so kind to their horses as to provide them with fly nets. Bedsteads and bedding too, are rarely provided for any of the slaves — if the waiters and coachmen, wait- ing maids, cooks, washers, &c., have beds at all, they must generally get them for them- selves. Commonly they lie down at night on the bare floor, with a small blanket wrapped round them in winter, and in summer a coarse osnaburg sheet, or nothing. Old slaves generally have beds, but it is because when younger they hate provided them for themselves. Only two meals a dav are allowed the house slaves — the first at twelve o'clock. If they eat before this time, it is by stealth, and I am sure there must be a good deal of suffering among them from hunger, and particularly by children. Besides this, they are often kept from their mealj by way of punishment. No table is provided for 56 Personal Narratives — Anarclina Grimke Weld. thnm to eat from. Tlicy knovv nolhinjf of the comlbrt and pleasure of gathering round the so. cial board — each takes his plate or tin pan and iron spoon and liolds it in the hand or on the lap. I never saw slaves seated round a table to partake of any meal. As the general rule, no lights of any kind, no firewood — no towels, basins, or soap, no tables, chairs, or other furniture, arc provided. Wood for cooking and washing /or the family is fmmd, but when tiie master's work is done, the slave must find wood for himself if he has a lire. I have repeatedly known slave ciiildren kept the mIioIc winter's evening, sitting on the stair-case in a cold entry, just to be at hand to snulT candles or hand a tumbler of water from the side-board, or go on errands from one room to anotiicr. It may be asked why they were not permitted to stay in the parlor, when they would be still more at hand. I answer, because waiters are not allowed to sit in the presence of tlicir ownci-s, and as children who were kept running all day, would of course get very tired of standing for two or three hours, they were allowed to go into the entry and sit on the staircase imti! rung for. Another reason is, that even slaveholders at times find the presence of slaves very annoying ; they cannot exercise entire freedom of speech before them on all sub- jects. I have also known instances where seamstress- es were kept in cold entries to work by the stair case lamps for one or two hours, every evening in winter — they could not see without standing up all the time, tliougli the work was often too large and heavy for them to sew upon it in that position without great inconvenience, and j'et they were expected to do their work as ivell v/itli their cold fingers, and standing up, as if thejr had been sitting by a comfortable fire and provided with the necessary light. House slaves suffer a great deal also from not being allowed to leave the house without permission. If they wish to go even for a draught of water, they must ask leave, and if they stay longer than the mistress thinks neccssar}^ they are liable to be punished, and often are scolded or slaippcd, or kept from going down to the next meal. It frequently happens that relatives, among slaves, arc separated for weeks or months, by the husband or brother being taken by the' master on a journey, to attend on liis horses and himself. — When they return, the white husband seeks the wife of his love ; but the black husband must wait to sec Ms wife, until mistress pleases to let her chami)ermaid leave her room. Yes, sueli is the despotism of slavery, that wives and sisters dare not run to meet their husbands and brothers after such separations, and hours sometimes elnpse be- fore thcv are allowed to meet ; and, at times, a fiendish pk^asnre ia taken in keeping them asun- der — this furnishes an opportunity to vent feelings of spit 3 for any little neglect of " dut_v." TIt piifTcrings to whicii slaves are subjected by :^eparalions of various kinds, cannot be imagined by those unacquainted with the working out o( the f v'stcm behind the curtain. Take the follow- ing instances. Chambermaids and Bcamstresscs often sleep in their mistresses' apartments, but with no bedding I at all. I know an instance of a woman who has been married eleven years, and yet has never beeii allowed to sleep out of her mistress's chamber. — This is a great hardship to slaves. When wc con- sider that house slaves are rarely allowed social intercourse during thr day, as their work gcner- ally separates Ihem ; the barbarity of such an ar- rangement is obvious. It is peculiarly a hardship in the above case, as the husband of "the woman docs not "belong" to her " owner;" and because lie is subject to dreadful attacks of illness, and can have but little attention from his wife in the day. And yet her mistress, who is an old ladv, gives her the highest character as a faithful ser- vant, and told a friend of mine, that she was " en- tirely dependent upon her for all her comforts ; she dressed and undressed her, gave her all her food, and was so necessary to her that siie could not do without her." I may add, that this couple arc tenderly attached to each other. I also know an instance in which the husband was a slave and the wife was free : during the ill- ness of the former, the latter was allowed to come and nurse him ; she was obliged to leave the work b)' which she had made a living, and come to stay with her husband, and thus lost weeks of her time, or he would have suffered for want of pro- per attention ; and yet his "owner" made her no compensation for her services. He had long been a faithful and a favorite slave, and his owner was a woman very benevolent to the poor whites. — She went a great deal among these, as a visiting commissioner of the Ladies' Benevolent Society, and was in the constant habit oi paying the rela- tives of the poor whites for nursing their hus bands, fathers, and other relations ; becauce she thought it very hard, when their time was taken up, so that they could not earn their daily bread, that they should be left to suffer Now, such is the stupifying inlluencc of the " chattel principle" on the minds of slaveholders, that I do not sup- pose it ever occurred to her that this poor colored wife ought to be paid for her services, and parti- cularly as she was spending her time and strength in taking care of her "property." She no doubt only thouglit how kind she was, to nlloiD her to come and stay so long in her 3'ard ; for, let it be kept in mind, that slaveholders have unlimited power to separate husbands and wives, parents and children, howcA'crand whenever thcv please ; and if this mistress had chosen to do it, she could have debarred this woman from all intercourse with her husband, hj forbidding her to enter lier pre- mises. Persons who own plantations and yet live in cities, often take children from tiieir parents as soon as they arc weaned, and send them into the country ; because they do not want the time of the mother taken up by attendance upon her own children, it being too valuable to the mistress. As ^ furor, she is, in some cases, permitted to go to see them once a year. So, on the other hand, if field slaves happen to have rhildren of an age suit- able to the convenience of the m;ister, they ary fake.i from their parents and brought to the city. Parents are alrriowt never consulted as to the dis. position to be made of their children ; tliey have as liflle control over them, as have domestic animals over the disposal of their young. Every natural General Testimony — Cruelties. 57 and social foelinrr aad affection are violated with indifference ; slaves arc treated as thouijh the}" did not possess them. Another way in which the feelings of slaves are trifled with and often deeply wounded, is by ciiang- \ng their names ; if, at the time tliey are brought into a family, there is another slave of the same name ; or if the owner happens, for some other reason, not to like the name of the new comer. I have known slaves very much grieved at having the names of their children thus changed, when they had been called after a dear relation. In- deed it would ba utterly impossible to recount the multitude of ways in which the heart of the slave is continually lacerated by the total disregard of his feelings as a social being and a human crca. turc. The slave suffers also greatly from being con- tinually watched. The sj'stem of espionage which is constantly kept up over slaves is the most wor- rying and intolerable that can be imagined. Many mistresses are, in fact, during tiie absence of their husbands, really their drivers ; and the pleasure of returning to their families often, on the part of the husband, is entirely destroyed by the complaints preferred against the slaves when he comes home to his meals. A mistress of my acquaintance asked her ser- vant boy, one day, what was the reason she could not get him to do liis work whilst his master was away, and said to him, " Your master works a great deal liarderthan you do; he is at his office all day, and often has to study his law cases at night." '' Master," said the bo}% " is working for himself, and for you, ma'am, but I am working for him." The mistress turned and remarked to a friend, that she was so struck with the truth of the remark, that she could not say a word to him. But I forbear — the sufferings of the slaves ara not only innumerable, but they are indescribable. I may paint the agony of kindred torn from each other's arms, to meet no more in time ; I may de- pict the inflictions of the blood-stained lash, but I cannot describe the daily, hourl}', ceaseless torture, endured by the heart that is constantly trampled under the foot of despotic power. This is a part of the horrors of slavery which, I believe, no one has ever attempted to delineate ; I wonder not at it, it mocks all power of language. Who can de- scribe the anguish of tliat mind which feels itself impaled upon the iron of arbitrary power — its liv- ing, writhing, helpless victim ! every human sus- ceptibility tortured, its S3'inpathies torn, and stung, and bleeding — always feeling the death-weapon in its heart, and yet not so deep as to kill that humanity which is made the curse of its exist- ence. In the course of ray testimony I liave entered somewhat into the minutioB of slavery, because this is a part of the subject often overlooked, and cannot be appreciated by any but those who have been witnesses, and entered into sympathy with the slaves as human beings. Slaveholders think nothing of them, because they regard their slaves as property, the mere instruments of their conve- nience and pleaLarc. One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognises a human being in a slave. As thou hast asked me to testify respecting the physical condition of the slaves merely, I say no- thing of the awful neglect of their minds and souls and the systematic effort to imbrute them. A wrong and an impiety, in comparison with which all the other unutterable wrongs of slavery are but as the dust of the balance. Angelina G. Weld, GENERAL TESTIMONY TO THE CRUELTIES INFLICTED UPON SLAVES. Before pi'esenting to the reader particular de- tails of the cruelties inflicted upon American slaves, we will present in brief the well-weigh- ed declarations of slaveholders and other resi- dents of slave states, testifying that the slaves are treated with barbarous inhumanity. All de- fails and particulars will be drawn out under their appropriate heads. We propose in this place to present testimony of a general character — the solemn declarations of slaveholders and others, that the slaves are treated with great cruelty. To discredit the testimony of witnesses who msist upon convicting themselves, would be an anomalous scepticism. To show that American slavery has always had one uniform character of diabolical cruelty, we will go back one hundred 3'ears, and prove it by unimpeachable witnesses, who have given their deliberate testimony to its horrid barbarity, from 1739 to 1839. TESTIMONY OF REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, In a letter written by him in Georgia, and ad- dressed to the slaveholders of Maryland, Vir- ginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, in 173S). — See Benezet's "Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies." " As I lately passed through your provinces on my way hither, I was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling of the miseries of the poor negroes. " Sure I am, it is sinful to use them as bad, nay worse than if they were brutes ; and what- ever particular txceptions there may be, (as I would charitably hope there are some,) I fear the generality of you that own negroes, are liable to such a charge. Not to mention what numbers have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel task, masters, who by their unrelenting scourges, have ploughed their backs and made long furrows, and at length brought them to the grave ' » * ♦ " The blood of them, spilt for these many years, in your respective provinces, will ascend up to heaven against you .'" The following is the testimony of the celc. brated John Woolman, an eminent minister of 58 General Testimony — Cruelties. the Society of Friends, who traveled extensively in the slave states. We copy it from a '-Me- moir of John Woolman, chiefly extracted from a Journal of his Life and Travels." It was pub- lished in Philadelphia, by the '' Society of Friends." " The following reflections, were written in 1757, while ho was traveling on a rchgious ac- count among slavclioldcrs." " Many of the white people m these provinces, take little or no care of negro marriages ; and when nngroes many, after their own way, some make so little account of those marriages, that, with views of outward interest, they often part men from their wives, by selling them far asun- der ; which is common when estates are sold by executors at vendue. " Many vk^hose labor is heavy, being followed at their business in the field by a man with a whip, hired for that purpose, — have, in common, little else allowed them but one peck of Indian corn and some salt for one week, with a few po- tatoes. (The potatoes they commonly raise by their labor on the first day of the week.) The correction ensviing on their disobedience to over- seers, or slothfulncss in business, is often very .veccr/', and sometimes despernl . Men and wo- men have many times scfiicr .■ ntJtes enoiig'h to hide their nakedness — and boys and girls, ten and twelve years old, are often quite naked among tlieir masters' children. Some use en- deavors to instruct those (negro children) they liavc in reading ; but in common, this is not only neglected, but disapproved." — p. 12. TESTIMONV OF THE ' MARYLAND JOURNAL AND BAL- TIMORE ADVERTISER,' OF MAY 30, 1788. " In the ordinary course of the business of the country, the punishment of relations frequently happens on tlie same farm, and in view of each other : the father often sees his beloved son — the son his venerable sire — the mother her much loved daughter — the daughter her affectionate parent — the husband sees the wife of hir bosom, and slie the husband of her affection, cruelly Ijouud up without delicacy or mercy, and without daring to in'< rpose in each other's behalf, and puni:;hed with all the extremity of incensed rage, and all the rigor of tinrelenting severity. Let us reverse the case, and suppose it ours : all is si- lent HORROR I" testimony OF THE HON. WILLIAM PINCKNSn', OF MARYLAND. In a spcecli before the Maryland House of Delegates, in 1789, Mr. P. calls slavery in that state, " a speaking picture of abominahlc oppres. sion ;" and adds : " It will not do thus to act like unrelenting tyrants, perpetually sermon- izing it with liberty as our text, and actual op- pression for our commentary. Is she [Maryland] not .... the foster mother of petty despots, — the patron of wanton oppression ?" Extract frf)m a speech of Mr. Rice, in the Convention for forming the Constitution of Ken- tucky, in 17!)0 : " The master may, and often does, inflict upon him all the severity of punishment the human body is capable of bearing.^' President Edwards, the Younger, in a sermon before the Connecticut Abolition Society, 17!)1, says : " From these drivers, for every imagined, as well as real neglect or want of exeriion, they re- ceive the lash — the smack of v.'hich is all day long in the ears of those who are on the planta. tion or in the vicinity ; and it is used with such dexterity and severity, as not only to lacerate thi: skin, but to tear out small portions of the flesh at almost every stroke. " This is the general treatment of the slaves- But many individuals suffer still more severely. Many, many arc knocked down ; some have their eyes beaten out : some have an arm or a leg brok. en, or chopped off ; and many, for a very small, or for no crime at all, have been beaten to dcatli, merely to gratify the fury of an enraged master or overseer." Extract from an oration, delivered at Balti- more, July 4, 1791, by George Buchanan, M. D member of the American Philosophical Sociely- Their situation (the slaves') is insupportable ; misery inhabits their cabins, and pursues them in the field. Inhumanly beaten, the}' often fall sa- crifices to the turbulent tempers of their masters I Who is there, unless inured to savage cruelties, that can hear of the inhuman punisiiments daily inflicted upon the unfortunate blacks, without feeling for them ? Can a man who calls himself a Christian, coolly and deliberately tie up, thumb, screw, torture with pincers, and beat unmerci- fully a poor slave, for perhaps a trifling neglccl of duty 'I. — p. 14. testimony of HON. JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE A SLAVEHOLDER. In one of his Congressional speeches, Mr. R. says : " Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of it, like so many post-horses ivhipped to death in a mail coach. Ambition has its cover-sluts in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ; but wiiere are the trophies of avarice ? The hand-cuff, the manncle, the blood-stained cntc- hide .'" Major Stoddard, of the United States' army, who took possession of Louisiana in behalf of the United States, under the cession of 1804, in his Sketches of Louisiana, page 332, says : "The feelings of humanity are outraged — llu' most odious tyranny exercised in a land of free- dom, and hunger and nakedness prevail amidst plenty. « * «■ Cruel, and even unusual pun- ishments arc daily inflicted on these wretched creatures, enfeebled with hunger, labor and the lash. The scenes of misery and distress con. stantly witnessed alon'j the coast of the Delta, [of the Mississippi,] the wounds and lacerations occasioned by demoralized masters and over- seers, torture the feelings of the passing stranger, and wring blood from the heart." Though only the third of the following series of resolutions is directly relevant to the subject now under consideration, v/e insert llie other General Testimony — Cruelties. 59 resolutions, both because they are explanatory of the third, and also serve to reveal the public sen- timent of Indiana, at the date of the resolutions. As a large majority of the citizens of Indiana at that time, were natives of slave states, they well knew the actual condition of the' slaves. 1. " Resolved unanimously, by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of In- diana Territory, that a suspension of the sixth article of compact between the United States and the territories and states north west of the river Ohio, passed the 13th day of January, 1783, for the term of ten years, would be higlily ad- vantageous to the territory, and meet the ap- probation of at least nine-tenths of the good citi- zens of the same. 12. " Resolved UNANIMOUSLY, that the abstract question of liberty and slavery, is not considered as involved in a suspension of the said article, inasmuch as the number of slaves in the United .States would not be augmented by tlie measure. 3. " Resolved unanimously, that the suspen- sion of the said article would be equally advanta- geous to the territory, to the states from whence the negroes would be brought, and to the negroes themselves. The states which are ovcrburthcned witli negroes, would be benefited by disposing of the negroes which they cannot comfortably sup- {jort ; * * and the negro himself would ex- rUANGK A scanty PITTANCE OF THE COARSEST FOOD, for a plentiful and nourishing diet ; and a situa- tion which admits not the most distant prospect of emancipation, for one which presents no con- siderable obstacle to his wishes. 4. " Resolved unanimously, that a copy of these resolutions be delivered to the delegate to Congress from this territory, and that he be, and he hereby is, instructed to use his best endeavors to obtain a suspension of the said article. J. B. Thomas, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Pierre Minard, President pro tern, of the Legislative Council. Vincennes, Dec. 20, 1806. "Forwarded to the Speaker of the United States' Senate, by William Henry Harrison, Gover- nor." — American State Papers, vol 1. p. 467. Monsieur, C. C. Robin, who resided in Lou- isiana from 1802 to 1806, and published a volume containing the results of his observations there, thus speaks of the condition of the slaves : " "While they are at labor, the manager, the master, or the driver has commonly the whip in hand to strike the idle. But those of the ne- groes who are judged guilty of serious faults, are punished twenty, twenty-five, forty, fifty, or one hundred lashes. The manner of tliis cruel exe- cution is as follows : four stakes are driven down, making a long square ; the culprit is extended naked between these stakes, face downwards ; his hands and his feet are bound separately, with strong cords, to each of the stakes, so far apart that his arms and legs, stretched in the form of St. Andrew's cross, give the the poor wretch no chance of stirring. Then the executioner, who is ordinarily a negro, armed with the long whip of a Coachman, strikes upon the reins and thighs. The crack of his whip resounds afar, like that of an angry cartman beating his horses. The blood flows, the long wounds cross each other, strips of skin are raised without softening either the hand of the executioner or the heart of the master, who cries ' sting him harder.' " The reader is moved ; so am I : my agitated hand refuses to trace the bloody picture, to re- count how many times the piercing cry of pain has interrupted my silent occupations ; how many times I have shuddered at the faces of those bar- barous masters, where I saw inscribed the num- ber of victims sacrificed to their ferocity. " The women are subjected to these punish- ments as rigorously as the men — not even preg- nancy exempts them ; in that case, before bind- ing them to the stakes, a hole is made in the ground to accommodate the enlarged form of the victim. " It is remarkable that the white Creole wo- men are ordinarily more inexorable than the men. Their slow and languid gait, and the trifling servi. ces which they impose, betoken only apathetic in- dolence ; but should tlie slave not promptly obey, should he even fail to divine the meaning of their gestures, or looks, in an instant they are armed with a formidable whip ; it is no longer the arm which cannot sustahi the weight of a shawl or a reticule — it is no longer the form which but feebly sustains itself. Tiiey them- selves order the punishment of one of these poor creatures, and with a dry eye see their victim bound to four stakes ; they count the blows, anc raise a voice of menace, if the arm that strikcx relaxes, or if the blood docs not flow in suflicient abundance. Their sensibility changed to fury must needs feed itself for a while on the hideous spectacle ; they must, as if to revive themselves, hear the piercing shrieks, and see the flow of fresh blood ; tjiere are some of them v.'ho, in their frantic rage, pinch and bite their victims. " It is by no means wonderful that the laws designed to protect the slave, should be little re- spected by the generality of such masters. I have seen some masters pay thoFC unfortunate people the miserable overcoat which is their due ; but others give them nothing at all, and do not even leave them the hours and Sundays granted to them by law. I have seen some of those bar- barous masters leave them, during the vkfintcr, in a state of revolting nudity, even contrary to their own true interests, for they thus weaken and shorten the lives upon which repose the whole of their own fortunes. I have seen some of tlioso negroes obliged to conceal their nakedness with the long moss of the country. The sad melan- choly of these wretches, depicted upon tlieir coun- tenances, the flight of some, and the death of others, do not reclaim their masters ; they v/reak upon those who remain, the vengeance whicli they can no longer exercise upon the others.'' Whitman Mead, Esq. of New York, in his journal, published nearly a quarter of a century ago, under date of " Savannah, January 28, 1817. ♦' To one not accustomed to such scenes as slavery presents, the condition of the slaves is impressively shocking. In the course of my 60 General Testimony — Cruelties. walks, I was every where witness to their wretch- edness. Like the brute creatures of the north, they are driven about at the pleasure of all who meet them : half naked and half stai-ved, they drag out a pitiful existence, apparently almost unconscious of what they suffer. A threat ac- companies every command, and a bastinado is the usual reward of disobedience." TESTIMONY OF REV. JOHN' RANKIN, A native of Tennessee, educated there, and for a ntimher of years a preacher in slave states — noio pastor of a church in Ripley, Ohio. " Many poor slaves are stripped naked, stretch- ed and tied across barrels, orlarg-c bags, and tor- tured with the lasli during hours, and even whole days, until their jlesh is mangled to the very hones. Others arc stripped and hung up by tlie arms, their feet are tied together, and the end of a heavy piece of timber is put between their legs in order to stretch their bodies, and so prepare them for the torturing lash — and in this situation they are often whipped until their bodies are covered with blond and. mangled flesh — and in order to add the greatest keenness to their sufltr- ings, their wounds arc washed with liquid salt I And some of the miserable creatures are permit- ted to hang in that position until they actually expire ; some die under the lash, others linger about for a time, and at length die of their wounds, and many survive, and endure again similar torture. These bloody scenes are con- stantly exhibiting in every slaveholding country — thousands of irhips are every day stained in African blood .' Even the poor /cmaZes are not permitted to escape these shocking cruelties." — Rankin's Letters, pages 57, .58. These letters were published fifteen years ago. — They were addressed to a brother in Vir- ginia, who was a slaveholder. TESTIMONY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SO- CIETY. " We have heard of slavery as it exists in Asia, and Africa, and Turkey — we have heard of the feudal slavery under which the peasantry of Europe have groaned from the days of Alaric until now, but excepting only the horrible system of the West India Islands, we have never heard of slavery in an}^ country, ancient or modern, Pagan, Mohammedan, or Christian ! so terrible in its character, as the slavery whieli exists in these United States." — Seventh Report American Colo- nization Society, 1824. TESTIMONY OF THE GRADUAL EMANCIPATION SOCIE- TY OF NORTH CAROLINA. Signed by Moses Swain, President, and William Swain, Secretary. " In the eastern part of the state, the slaves considerably outnumber the free population. Their situation is there wretched beyond de- scription. Impoverished by the mismanagement which wc have already attempted to describe, the master, unable to support his own grandeur and maintain his slaves, puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely suffi. cient for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half naked and half starved much of the time. Generally, throughout the state, the African is an abused, a monstrously outraged creature." — See Minutes of the American Conven. tion, convened in Baltimore, Oct. 25, 1826. FROM KILES' BALTIMORE REGISTER FOR 1829, VOL. 35, p. 4. '* Dealing in slaves has become a large busi- ness. Establishments are made at several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle. These places of deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with iron thuinb-screws and gags, and ornamented with cowskins and other whips — often times bloody." Judge Ruffin, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, in one of his judicial decisions, says — " The slave, to remain a slave, must feel that there is no appeal from his master. No man can anticipate the provocations which the slave would give, nor the consequent wrath of the master, prompting him to BLOODY VEN. GEANCE on the turbulent traitor, a vengeance generally practiced with impunity, by reason of its PRIVACY." — See Wheelefs Law of Slavery p. 247. Mr. Moore, of Virginia, in his speech before the Legislature of that state, Jan, 15, 1832, says: " It must be confessed, that although the treatment of our slaves is in the general, as mild and humane as it can be, that it must always happen, that there will be found hundreds of in- dividuals, who, owing either to the natural fe- rocity of their dispositions, or to the effects of intemperance, will be guilty of cruelty and bar- barity towards their slaves, wliieh is almost ?'»)- tolerable, and at which humanity revolts." testimony of B. swain, ESQ., of north CAROLINA. " Let any man of spirit and feeling, for a mo- ment cast his thoughts over this land of slaver}- — think of the nakedness of some, the hungry yearn- ings of others, the flowing tears and heaving sighs of parting relations, the wailings and wo, the bloody cut of the keen lash, and the frightful scream that rends the very skies — and all this to gratify ambition, lust, pride, avarice, vanity, and other depraved feelings of the human heart. . . . THE WORST JS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN. Were all the miseries, the hon'orsof slavery, to burst at once into view, a peal of seven-fold thunder could scarce strike greater alarm." — See " Sicain's Address," 1830. testimony of dr. JAMES C. FINLEY, Son of Dr. Finley, one of the founders of the Col- onizntion Society, and brother of R. S. Finley, agent of the American Colonization Society. Dr. J. C. Finley was formerly one of the edi- tors of the Western Medical .Journal, at Cincin- nati, and is well known in the west as utterly hostile to immediate abolition. " In almost the last conversation I had with you before I left Cincinnati, I promised to give you some account of some scenes of atrocious cruelty towards slaves, which I witnessed while I lived at the south. I almost resret having made the promise, for not only are they so atro' cious that you will with diflieulty believe them, but I also fear that they will have the effect of General. Testimony — Cruelties. 61 driving you into that cbolitionism, upon the bor- ders of which you have been so long hesitating. The people of the north are ignorant of the hor- vors of slaveri/ — of the a'rocities which it com- mits upon the unprotected slave. * * * " I do not know that any thing could be gain- ed by particularizing the scenes of horrible bar- barity, which fell under my observation during my short residence in one of the wealthiest, most mtelligcnt, and moiit moral parts of Georgia. Their number and atrocity arc »uch, that I am confident they would gain credit with none but abolitionists. Every thing will be conveyed in the remark, that in a state of society calculated to foster the worst ])assions of our nature, the elave derives no protection either from law or public opinion, and that all the cruelties which the Russians are reported to have acted towards the Poles, after tJicir 'late subjugation, ark SCENES OP EVEiiY-DAY OCCURRENCE in the soutliem states. This statement, incredible as it may Beem, falls short, very far short of the truth." The foregoing is extracted from a letter writ- ten by Dr. Finley to Rev. Asa Mahan, his former pastor, then of Cincinnati, now President of Oberlin Seminary. TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM I'. ALLAN, OF ILLINOIS, Son of a Slaveholder, Rev. Dr. Allan of Hunts- ville, Ala. " At our house it is so common to hear their (the slaves') screams, that we think nothing of it : and lest any one should think that in general the slaves are well treated, let me be distinctly understood : — cruelty is the rule, and kindness the exception." Extract of a letter dated July 2d, 18.34, from Mr. Nathan Cole, of St. Louis, Missouri, to Arthur Tappan, Esq. of this city : " I am not an advocate of the immediate and unconditional emancipation of the slaves of our country, yet no man has ever yet depicted the xcretchedness of the situation of the slaves in co- lors too dark for the truth. ... I know that many good people are not aware of the treatment to which slaves are usnully subjected, nor have they any just idea of the extent of the evil." TESTIMONY OF REV. JAMES A. THOME, A native of Kentucky — Son of Arthur Thome Esq., till recently a Slaveholder. " Slavery is the parent of more suffering than has flowed from any one source since the date of its existence. Such sufferings too ! Suffer- ings inconceivable and innumerable — itnmingled wretchedness from the ties of nature rudely broken and dcstioycd, the ncutest bodily tortures, groans, tears and blood — lying for ever in weari- ness and painfulness, in watchings, in hunger and in thirst, in cold and nakedness. " Brethren of the North, be not deceived. These sufferings still exist, and despite the ef- forts of their cruel authors to hush them down, and confine tliem within the precincts of their own plantations, they will ever and anon, strug- gle up and reach the ear of humanity." — Mr. Thome's Speech at New York, May, 1834. TESTIMONY OF THE MARYVILLE (TENNESSEE) INTELLIGENCER, OF OCT. 4, 1835. The Editor, in speaking of the sufferings of the slaves which are taken by the internal trade to the South West, says : " Place yourself in imagination, for a mo- ment, in their condition. With heavy galling chains, riveted upon your person ; half-naked, half-starved; your back lacerated with th-i ' knotted Wliip ;' traveling to a region where your condition through time will be second only to the loretched creatures in Hell. " This depicting is not visionary. Would to God that it was." TESTIMONY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD OF KENTUCKY ; A large majority of whom are slaveholders. " This system licenses and produces great cruelty. " Mangling, imprisonment, starvation, every species of torture, may be inflicted upon him, (the slave,) and he has no redress. " There are now in our whole land two mil- lions of human beings, exposed, defenceless, to every insult, and every injury short of maiming or death, which their fellow-men may choose to inflict. They suffer all that can be inflicted by wanton caprice, by grasping avarice, by brutal lust, by malignant spite, and by insane anger. Their happiness is the sport of every whim, and the prey of every passion that may, occasionally, or habitually, infest the master's bosom. If we could calculate the amount of wo endured by ill-treated slaves, it would over- whelm every compassionate heart — it would move even the obdurate to sympathy. There is also a vast sum of suffering inflicted upon the slave by humane masters, as a punishmL-nt for that idleness and misconduct which slavery na- turally produces. * * * " Brutal stripes and all the varied kinds of personal indignities, are not the only species of cruelty which slavery licenses." * * Testimony OF THE Rev. N. H. Harding, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, in Oxford, North Carolina, a slaveholder. " I am greatly surprised that you should in any form have been the apologist of a system so full of deadly poison to all holiness and benevolence as slavery, the concocted essence of fraud, sel- fishness, and cold hearted tyranny, and the fruit- ful parent of unnumbered evils, both to the op- pressor and the oppressed, the one thousandth PART OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN BROUGHT TO LIGHT." Mr. Asa A. Stone, a theological student, who lived near Natchez, (Mi.,) in 1834 and 5, sent the following with other testimony, to be published under his own name, in the N. Y. Evangelist, while he was still residing there. " Floggings for all offences, including defi- ciencies in work, arc frightfully cominon, and most terribly severe. " Rubbing with salt and red pepper is very com- man after a severe whipping," 62 Punishments — Floggings. Testimony of Rev. Phineas Smith, Cent rcvillc, Allegan}' ,Co., N. Y. who lived four years at the south. " Tliey arc badly clothed, badly fed, wretch- edly lod.,■»>«,■»./,■>' Mobile, Alabama, in the " Mobile Com- ^^O"' '*« ««<^^ «"« <^«'^« % '^hipping. Diorcial Advertiser." Mr. Bryant Johnson, Fort Valloy, •» Ranaway, a nenrro woman, named Maria, some scars on her Houston t;(i.,Oooreia, in the " Standard i„,i, _•„_ j ;.., Tl., .„2,;^ » of TJnion," MilledgeViUe Ga. Oct. 2, ^«'^'^ occasioned by the whip. IHHS. Mr. James T. Dc Jamctt, Vernon, n Stolen a negro woman, named Celia. On examining hfit ^Tazeue.'-^'juK H,' l'^' " '''""" ^ack you will find marks caused by the rchip." scars on their bodies made by the whip, their own runaway slaves. To copy these advertise- ments entire would require a great amount of space, and flood the reader with a vast mass of matter irrelevant to the point before us ; we shall therefore insert only so much of each, as will intelligibly set forth the precise point under consideration. In the column under the word " witnesses," will be found the name of the indi. vidual,who signs the advertisement, or for whom it is signcd,with his or her place of residence, and the name and date of the paper, in which it appear- ed, and generally the name of the place where it is published. Opposite the name of each witness, will be an extract, from the advertisement, con- taining his or her testimony. PMnw^men/s— Floggings . 63 WITNESSES. Maurice Y. Garcia, Sheriff of the County of Jefferson, La., in the " New Orleans Bcc," August, 11, 1838. R. J. Bland, Shoriff of Claiborne Co, Miss., in tlie " Oliurleston (S.C.) Cou- riff," August, -23, li?33. Mr. James Noe, Red River Landing, La., in the " Sentinel," Vicksburg, Miss., August 22, 1837. William Craze, jailor, Alexandria, La. in the "Planter's Intelligencer," Sept. 26, 1838. John A. Rowland, jailor, liumberton. North Carolii:a, in the " Fayctteville (N. C.) Observer," June 20, 1838. J. K. Roberts, sheriff, Blount county, Ala., in the Huntsville Democrat," Dec. 9, 1838. Sir. H. Variliat, No. 23 Girod street, New Orleans — in the " Commercial Bulletin," August 27, 1838. Mr. Cornelius D. Tolin, Augusta. Ga., in the " Chronicle and Sentinel," Oct. 18, 1838. W. II. Brasseale, sherift". Blount coun- ty, Ala., in tile " Iluntsville Democrat." June y, 1838. TESTIMONY. " Lodged in jail, a mulatto boy, having large 7narks of the whip, on his shoulders and other parts of his body." " Was committed a negro boy, named Tom, is much marked with the whip." " Ranaway, a negro fellow named Dick — has many scars on hio back from being ichipped." " Committed to jail, a negro slave — his back is very badly scan-ed." " Committed, a mulatto fellow — his back shows lasting im- pressions of the whip, and leaves no doubt of his being a slave." " Committed to jail, a negro man — his back much marked by the whip." " Ranaway, the negro slave named Jupiter — has a fresk mark of a cowskiii on one of his cheeks." " Ranaway, a negro man named Johnson — he has a great many marks of the whip on his back." " Committed to jail, a negro slave named James — much scarred with a whip on his back." Mr. Robert Beasley, Macon, Ga., in " Ranaway, my man Fountain — he is marked on the back with tlie " Georgia Messenger," July 27, 1837. fJie whip." Mr. John Wotton, Rockvifle, Mont- " Ranaway, Bill — has several large scars on his back from a gomcry county, Maryland ia the "Bal- whipping in early life." wmnre Republican, Jan. 13, IbJo. rf b y D. S. Bennett sheriff, Natchitoches " Committed to jail, a negro boy who calls himself Joe — said La., in the " Herald," July 21, 1838. negro bears inarks of the whip." Messrs. C.C. Whitehead, and R. A. „ ,. „ t , j- t. - i • j i Evans, Mai ion, Georgia, in the Mil- "Ranaway, negro fellow John — irom being whipped, has scars ledgeviUe (Ga.) " Standard of Uuion," on his back, arms, and thighs." June 26, 1838. Mr. Samuel Stewart, Greensboro", .Ma., in the " Southern Advocate," Huntsville, Jan. 6, 1838. Mr. John Walker, No. 6, Banks' Ar- cade, New Orleans, in the " Bulletin," August 11, 1838. Mr. .Tease Beenc, Cahawba, Ala., in the "State Intelligencer," Tuskaloosa, Dec. 25, 1337. Mr. John Turner, Thomaston, Upson county, Georgia— in the "Standard of Union," MiUeUgcviUe, June 20. 1838. James Derrah, deputy sheriff, Cl.-ii- bome county, Mi., in the "Port Gibson (Jorrespondenl," Ai)ril 15, 1837. S. B. Murphy, sheriff. Wilkinson county, Georgia— in the aiilledgevilla "Journal," May 15, 1838. " Ranaway, a boy named Jim — with the marks of the whip on the small of the back, reaching roimd to the flank." " Ranaway, ths mulatto boy Quash — considerably marked on the back and other places with the lash. " Ranaway, my negro man Billy — he has the marks of the whip." " Left, my negro man named George — has marks of the whip very plain on his thighs." "Committed to jail, negro man Toy — he has been badly whipped." " Brought to jail, a negro man named George — ^he has a great many scars from the lash." " One hundred dollars reward, for my negro Glasgow, and Kate, his wife. Glasgow is 24 years old — has marks of the whip on his back. Kate is 26 — has a scar on her cheek, and several marks of a whip." " Committed to jail, a negro boy named John, about 17 years old — his back badly marked with the ichip, his upper lip and chin severely bruised." The preceding are extracts from advertise- | dreds of similar ones pubhshed during the same ments published in southern papers, mostly in the period, with which, as the preceding are quite year 1838. I'hey are the mere samples of hun- 1 sufficient to show the commonness of inhuman Mr. L. E. Cooner, Branchville Orange- burgh District. South Carolina — in the Macon " Messenger," May 25, 1837. John H. Hand, jailor, parish of West Feliciana, La., in iho St. " FrancisviUe Journal," July 6, 1837. 64 Punishments — Floggings. floggings in the slave states, we need not burden the reader. The foregoing testimony is, as the reader per- Miives, that of the slavehoUUrs themselves, volun- tarily certifying to the outrages which their own hands have committed upon defenceless and in- nocent men and women, over whom they have assumed authority. We have given to Iheir testi- mony precedence over that of all other witnesses, for the reason that when men testify against themselves they are under no temptation to ex- aggerate. We v.'C will now present the testimony of a large number of individuals, with their names and residences, of persons who witnessed the inflictions to wiiieli they testify. Many of them have been slaveholders, and all residents for longer or short- er periods in slave states. Rev. John H, Curtiss, a native of Keep Creek, Norfolk county, Virginia, now a local preacher of llie Methodist I^iscopal Church in Portage co., Ohio, testifies as follows : — " In 1829 or 30, one of my father's slaves was accused of taking, the key to the office and steal, ing four or five dollars : he denied it. A consta- ble by the name of Hull was called ; he took the negro, very deliberately tied his hands, and whipped him till the blood ran freely down his legs. By this time Hull appeared tired, and stopped ; he then took a rope, put a slip noose around his neck, and told the negro he was going to kill him, at the same time drew the rope and began whipping: the negro fell ; his cheeks looked as though they would burst with strangulation. Hull whipped and kicked him, till I really thought he was go- ing to kill him ; when he ceased, the negro was in a complete gore of blood from head to foot." Mr. David Hawlev, a class-leader in the Me- thodist Church, at St. Alban's, Iiicking county, Ohio, who moved from Kentucky to Ohio in 1831, testifies as follows : — " In the year 1821 or 2, I saw a slave hung for killing his master. The master had whipped the slave's mother to death, and, locking him in a room, threatened him with the same fate ; and, e/ov.'hide in hand, had begun the work, when the slave joined battle and slew the master." Samuel Ellison, a member of the Society of Friends, formerly of Southampton county, Vir- ginia, now of Marlborough, Stark county, Ohio, gives the following testimony : — " While a resident of Southampton county, Vir- ginia, I knew two men, after having been severe- ly treated, endeavor to make their escape. In tliis Ihey faileJ — were taken, tied to trees, and wliippc'd to death by their overseer. I lived a mile from the negro quarters, and, at that distance, could frequently hear the screams of the poor creatures when beaten, and could also hear the blows given by the overseer with some heavy in. strument." Major Horace NvE, of Putnam, Ohio, gives the following testimony of Mr. Wm. -Vrmstrong, of that place, a captain and supercargo of beats descending tlic Mississippi river : — "At Bayou Sarah, I saw a slave staked out, with his face to the ground, and whipped with a large whip, which laid open the flesh for about two and a half inches every stroke. 1 stayed about five minutes, but could stand it no longer, and left them whipping." Mr. Stephen E. Maltbv, inspector of provisions, Skeneateles, New York, who has resided in Ala- bama, speaking of the condition of the slaves, says : — " I have seen them cruelly whipped. I will relate one instance. One Sabbath morning, be- fore I got out of my bed, I heard an outcry, and got up and went to the window, when I saw some six or eight bo3's, from eight to twelve years of age, near a rack (made for tying horses) on the public square. A man on horseback rode up, got ofl'his horse, took a cord from his pocket, tied one of the boys by the thumbs to the rack, and with his horsewhip lashed him most severely. He then untied him and rode off without saying a word, " It was a general practice, W"hile I v/as at Iluntsville, Alabama, to have a patrol every night ; and, to my knowledge, this patrol was in the habit of traversing the streets with cow-skins, and, if they found any slaves out after eight o'clock with- out a pass, to whip them until they were out of reach, or to confine them until morning." Mr. J. G. Baldwin, of Middletown, Connecti- cut, amembcr of the ]Methodist Episcopal Church, gives the following testimony : — " I traveled at the south in 1827 : when near Charlotte, N. C. a free colored man fell into the readjust ahead of me, and went on peaceably. — When passing a public-house, the landlord ran out with a large cudgel, and applied it to the head and shoulders of the man with such force as to shatter it in pieces. When the reason of his con- duct was asked, he replied, that he owned slaves, and he would not permit free blacks to come into his neighborhood. "Not long after, I stopped at a public-house near Halifax, N. C, between nine and ten o'clock P. M., to stay over night. A slave sat upon a bench in the bar-room asleep. The master came in, seized a large horsewhip, and, without any warning or apparent provocation, laid it over the face and eyes of the slave. Tlie master cui*scd, swore, and swung his lash — the slave cowered and trembled, but said not a word. Upon inquiry thti next morning, I ascertained that the only offence was falling asleep, and this too in consequence of having been up nearly all the previous night, in attendance upon company." Rev. Joseph M. Sadd, of Castile, N. Y., who has lately left Missouri, where lie was pastor of a church for some years, says : — " In one ease, near where wc lived, a runaway slave, when brought back, was most cruelly beat- en — bathed in the usual \u\u\d — laid in the sun, and a physician employed to heal his wounds : — then the same process of punishment and healing Punishments — Floggings. 65 was repeated, and repeated again, and then the poor creature was sold for the New Orleans mar- ket. This account we had from the physician himself." Mr. Abraham Bell, of Poughkcepsie, New York, a member of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, was employed, in 1837 and 38, in level- ling and grading for a rail-road in the state of Georgia : he had imder his direction, during the whole time, thirty slaves. Mr. B. gives the fol- lowing testimony : — " All the slaves had their backs scarred, from the oft-repeated whippings they had received." Mr. Alonzo Barnard, of Farmington, Ohio, who was in Mississippi in 1837 and 8, says : — " The slaves were often severely whipped. I saw one looman very severely whipped for acci dentally cutting up a stalk of cotton.* When tliey wero whipped' they were commonly held down by four men : if these could not confine them, they were fastened by stakes driven firmly into the ground, and then lashed often so as to draw blood at each blow. I saw one woman who had lately been dL'livered of a child in consequence of cruel treatment." Rev. H. Lyman, late pastor of the Free Presby- terian Church at Buffalo, N. Y. says : — " There was a steam cotton press, in the vicinity of my boarding-house at New Orleans, which was driven night and day, without intermission. My curiosity led mc to look at the interior of the estab- lishment. There I saw several slaves engaged in rolling cotton bags, fastening ropes, lading carts, &c. " The presiding genius of the place was a driver, wiio held a rope four feet long in his hand, which he wielded with cruel dcxteritj'. He used it in single blows, just as the men were lifting to tight, en the bale cords. It seemed to me that he was desirous to edify me with a specimen of his autho- rity ; at any rate the cruelty was horrible." Mr. John Vance, a member of the Baptist Church, in St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio, who moved from Culpepper county, Va., his native state, in 1814, testifies as follows : — " In 1826, I saw a woman by the name of Mallix, flog her female slave with a horse-whip so horribly that she was washed in salt and water several days, to keep her bruises from mortifying, "In 1811, I was returning from mill, in She- nandoah county, when I heard the cry of murder, in the field of a man nam6d Painter. I rode to the place to see what was going on. Two men, by the names of John Morgan and Michael Sig- lar, had heard the cry and came running to the place. I saw Painter beating a negro with a tre- mendous club, or small handspike, swearing he would kill him ; but lie was rescued by Morgan and Siglar. I learned that Painter had com- menced flogging the slave for not getting to work * Mr. Comolius Johnson, of Farmin£!ton, Ohio, was also a witness to this inhuman outrage upon an unprotected wo- man, for the unintentional destruction of a stalk of cotton ! In his testimony he is more particular, and says, that the number of lashes inflicted upon her by tlie overseer wa" * ONK UrNDRED ANB FIFTY I" soon enough. He had escaped, and taken refuge under a pile of rails that were on some timbers up a little from the ground. The master had put fire to one end, and stood at the other with his club, to kill him as he came out. The pile was still burning. Painter said he was a turbulent fellow and he would kill him. The apprehension of P. was TALKED ABOUT, but, as a compromise, the ne- gro was sold to another man." Extract from the fuelished Journal of the LATE Wm. Saverv, of Philadelphia, an eminent minister of the religious Society of Friends : — "6th mo. 22d, 1791. We passed on to Au- gusta, Georgia. They can scarcely tolerate us, 00 account of our abhorrence of slavery. On the 28th we got to Savannah, and lodged at one Blount's, a hard-hearted slaveholder. One of his lads, aged about fourteen, was ordered to go and milk the cows : and falling asleep, through wea- riness, the master called out and ordered him a flogging. 1 asked him what he meant by a flog- ging. He replied, the way we serve them here is, we cut their backs until they are raw all over, and then salt them. Upon this my feelings were roused : I told him that was too bad, and queried if it were possible ; he replied it was, with many curses upon the blacks. At supper this unfeeling wretch craved a blessing .' " Next morning I heard some one begging for mercy, and also the lash as of a whip. Not know- ing whence the sound came, I rose, and presently found the poor boy tied up to a post, his toes scarcely touching the ground, and a negro whip- per. He had already cut him in an unmerciful manner, and the blood ran to his heels. I step- ped in between them, and ordered him untied im- mediately, which, with some reluctance and as- tonishment, was done. Returning to the house I saw the landlord, who then showed himself in his true colors, the morst abominably wicked man I ever met with, full of horrid execrations and threatenings upon all northern people ; but I did not spare him ; which occasioned a bystander to say, with an oath, that I should be "popped over.'' Wc left them, and were in full expecta- tion of their way-laying or coming after us, but the Lord restrained them. The next house we stopped at we found the same wicked spirit " Col. Elijah Ellsworth, of Richfield, Ohio, gives the following testimony : — " Eight or ten years ago I was in Putnam coun- ty, in the state of Georgia, at a Mr. Slaughter's, the father of my brother's wife. A negro, that, belonged to Mr. Walker, (I believe,) was accused of stealing a pedlar's trunk. The negro denied, but, without ceremony, was lashed to a tree — the whipping commenced — six or eight men took turns — the poor fellow begged for mercy, but with- out effect, until he was literally cut to pieces, from, his shoulders to his hips, and covered with a gore of blood. When he said the trunk was in a stack of fodder, he was unlashed. They proceeded to tha stack, but found no trimk. They asked the poor fellow, what he lied about it for ; he said, " Lord, Massa, to keep from being whipped to death ; I know nothing about the trunk." They comraeneed the whipping with redoubled vigor, until I really supposed he would be wliippcd to death on the 66 Punishments — Floggings. spot ; and such shrieks and crying for mercy ! — | Again lie acknowledged, and again they were de- j feated in finding, and the same reason given as ' before. Some were for wliipping again, others thought he would not survive another, and they ceased. About two montlus after, the trunk was found, and it was then ascertained who the thief was : and the poor fellow, after being nearly beat to death, and twice made to lie about it, was as innocent as I was." The following statements are furnished by Ma- jor Horace Nye, of Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio. " In the summer of 1837, Mr. .Toun H. Moore- HEAD, a partner of mine, descended the Mississippi with several boat loads of flour. He told me that floating in a place in the Mississippi, where he could see for miles a head, he perceived a con- course of people on the bank, tJiat for at least a mile and a half above he saw them, and heard the screams of some person, and for a great dis- tance, the crack of a whip, he run near the shore, and saw them whipping a black man, who was on the ground, and at that time nearly unable to scream, but the whip continued to be plied without intermission, as long as he was in sight, say from one mile and a half, to two miles be- low — he probably saw and heard them for one hour in all. He expressed the opinion that the man could not survive. " About four weeks smce I had a conversation with Mr. Porter, a respectable citizen of Morgan county, of this state, of about fifty years of age. He told mc that he formerly traveled about five years in the southern states, and that on one oc- casion he stopped at a private house, to stay all night ; (I think it was in Virginia,) while he was conversing with the man, his wife came in, and complained that the wench had broken some ar- ticle in the kitchen, and that she must be whip. ped. He took the woman into the door yard, stripped her clothes down to her hips — tied her hands together, and drawing them up to a limb, so that she could just touch the ground, took a very large cowskia whip, and commenced flog- ging ; he said that every stroke at first raised the skin, and immediately the blood came throutrh ; tliis he continued, until the blood stood in a pud- dle at her feet. He then turned to my informant and said, " Well, Yankee, what do you think of that ?" Extract of a letter from Mr. W. Dustin, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, when the letter was written, 1835, a student of Marietta College, Ohio. " I find by looking over my journal that the murdering, which I spoke of yesterday, took place about the first of June, 1834. " Without commenting upon this act of cruel- ty, or giving vent to my own feelings, I will sim- ply give you a statement of the fact, as known from personal observation. " Dr. K. a man of wealth, and a practising physician in the county of Yazoo, state of Mis- sissippi, personally known to me, having lived in the same neighborhood more than twelve months, after having scourged one of his negroes for running away, declared with an oath, that if he ran away again, he would kill him. The negro, FO soon asan opportunity offered, ran avi'ay again. He was caught and brought back. Again he was scoiu-gcd, until his flesh, mangled and torn, and thick mingled with the clotted blood, rolled from his back. He became apparently insensible, and beneath the heaviest stroke would scarcely utter a groan. The master got tired, laid down his whip and nailed the negro's ear to a tree ; in this condition, nailed fast to the rugged wood, he remained all night! " Suffice it to say, in the conclusion, that the next day he was found dead ! " Well, what did they do with the master ? The sum total of it is this: He was taken before a magistrate and gave bonds, for his appearance at the next court. Well, to be sure he had plen- ty of cash, so he ])aid up his bonds and moved away, and there the matter ended. " If tlie above fact will be of any service to you in exhibiting to the world the condition of the unfortunate negroes, you are at liberty to make use of it in any way you think best. Yours, liaternally, M. Dustin. Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, a member of the Bap. tist Church in Skeneateles, N. Y. and the as- sessor of that town, has furnished the following : " I went down the Mississippi in December, 1808, and saw twelve or fourteen negroes punish- ed, on one plantation, b}' stretching them on a ladder and tying them to it ; then stripping off their clothes, and whipping them on the naked flesh with a heavy whip, the lash seven or eight feet long : most of the strokes cut the skin. I under- stood tlicy were whipped for not doing the tasks allotted to them." From the Philanthropist, Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 26, 1839. " A very intelligent lady, the widow of a high- ly respectable preacher of the gospel, of the Pres- byterian Church, formerly a resident of a free state, and a colonizationist, and a strong anti- abolitionist, who, altliough an enemy to s'averv, was opposed to abolition on the ground that it was for carrying things too rapidly, and without regard to circumstances, and especially who be- lieved that abolitionists exaggerated with regard to the evils of slavery, and us«d to say that such men ought to go to slave states and see for them- selves, to be convinced that they did the slave- holders injustice, has gone and seen for hertelf. Hear her testimony. Kentucky, Dec. 25, 1835. " Dear Mrs. W. — I am still in the land of op- pression and cruelty, but hope soon to breathe the air of a free state. My soul is sick of slavery, and I rejoice that my time is nearly expired ; hut the scenes that I have witnessed have made an impression that never can be effaced, and have inspired me with the determination to unite my feeble efforts with those who arc laboring to sup- press this horrid system. lam note an nbnliticn- i-'it. You will cease to be surprised at this, when I inform you, that I have just seen a poor slave who was beaten by his inhuman mast' r until he could neither walk nor stand. I saw him from my window carried from the barn wlicre he had Punishments — Floggings. 67 been whipped) to the cabin, by two negro men ; and he now hes there, and if he recovers, will be a sufferer for months, and probably for life. You will doubtless suppose that he committed some great crime ; but it was not so. He was called upon by a young man (the son of his master,) to do something,, and not moving as quickly as his young master wished him to do, he drove him to the barn, knocked him down, and jumped upon him, stamped, and then cowhided him until he was almost dead. This is not the first act of cruelty that I have seen, though it is the worst ; and I am convinced that those who have des- cribed the cruelties of slaveholders, have not ex- aggerated." Extract of a letter from Gerrit Smith, Esq., of Peterboro', N. Y. Peterboro', December 1, 1838. To the Editor of the Union Herald : "My dear Sir : — 'V ou will be happy to hear, that the two fugitive slaves, to whom in the brotherly love of your heart, you gave the use of your horse, are still making undisturbed progress to- wards the monarchical land whither republican slaves escape for the enjoyment of liberty. They had eaten their breakfast, and were seated in my wagon, before day-dawn, this morning. " Fugitive slaves have before taken my house in their way, but never any, wliose lips and persons made so forcible an appeal to my sensibilities, and kindled in me so much abhorrence of the hell- concocted system of American slavery. "The fugitives exhibited their bare backs to my- self and a number of my neighbors. Williams' back is comparatively scarred. But, I speak with- in bounds, when I say, that one-third to one-half of the whole surface of the back and shoulders of poor Scott, consists of scars and wales result, ingfrom innumerable gashes. His natural com- plexion being yellow and the callous places be- ing nearly black, his back and shoulders remind you of a spotted animal." The Louisville Reeportr (Kentucky,) Jan. 15, 1839, contains the report of a trial for inhuman treatment of a female slave. The following is some of the testimony given in court. " Dr. Constant testified that he saw Mrs. Max- well at the kitchen door, whipping the negro se- verely, without being particular whether she struck her in the face or not. The negro was la- cerated by the whip, and the blood flowing. Soon after, on going down the steps, he saw quantities of blood on them, and on returning, saw them again. She had been thinly clad — barefooted in very cold weather. Sometimes sho had shoes — sometimes not. In the beginning of the winter she had linsev dresses, since then, calico ones. During the last four months, had noticed many scars on her person. At one time had one of her eyes tied up for a week. During the last three months seemed declining, and had become stupi- fied. Mr. Winters was passing along the street, heard cries, looked up through the window that was hoisted, saw the boy whipping her, as much as forty or fifty licks, while he staid. The girl was stripped down to the hips. The whip seem- ed to be a cow-hide. Whenever she turned her face to him, he would hit her across the face either v*rith the butt end or small end of the whip to make her turn her back round square to the lash, that he might get a fair blow at her. '' Mr. Say had noticed several wounds on her person, chiefly bruises. " Captain Porter, keeper of the work-house, into which iVlilly had been received, thought the inju- ries on her person very bad — some of them ap- peared to be burns — some bruises or stripes, as of a cow-hide." Letter of Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, to the Editor of the Philanthropist. Ripley, Feb. 20, 1839. " Some time since, a member of the Presbyte- rian Church of Ebenezxr, Brown county, Ohio, landed his boat at a point on the Mississippi. He saw some disturbance among the colored people on the bank. He stepped up, to see what was the matter. A black man was stretched naked on the ground ; his hands were tied to a stake, and one held each foot. He was doomed to re- ceive fifty lashes ; but by the time the overseer had given him twenty.five with his great whip, the blood was standing round the wretched vic- tim in little puddles. It appeared just as if it had rained blood. — Another observer stepped up, and advised to defer the other twenty-five to another time, lest the slave might die ; and he was releas- ed, to receive the balance when he should have so recruited as to be able to bear it and live. The ofTence was, coming one hour too late to work." Mr. Rankin, who is a native of Tennessee, in his letters on slavery, published fifteen years since, says : " A respectable gentleman, who is now a citi. zen of Flemingsburg, Fleming county, Kentucky, when in the state of South Carolina, was invited by a slaveholder, to walk with him and take a view of his farm. He complied with the invita- tion thus given, and in their walk they came to the place where the slaves were at work, and found the overseer whipping one of them very severely for not keeping pace with his fellows — in vain the poor fellow alleged that he was sick, and could not work. The master seemed to think all was well enough, hence he and the gen- tleman passed on. In the space of an hour tjiey returned by the same way, and found lliat the poor slave, who had been whipped as they first passed by the_ field of labor, was actually liead ! This I have from unquestionable authority." Extract of a letter from a Member of Concress, to the Editor of the New York American, dated Washington, Feb. 18, 1839. The name of the writer is with the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. " Three days ago, the inhabitants in the vicini- ty of the new Patent Building were alarmed by an outcry in the street, which proved to be that of a slave who had just been knocked down with a brick-bat by his pursuing master. Prostrate on the ground, with a large gash in his head, the poor slave was receiving the blows of his master on one side, and the kicks of his master's son on the other. His cries brought a few individuals to 68 Punishments — Floggings. the spot ; but no one dared to interfere, save to exclaim — You will kill him — which was met by the response, " He is mine, and I have a riglit to do what I j)Iease with Jiim." The heart-rending scene was closid from public view by dragging the poor bruised and wounded slave from the pub- lic street into his master's stable. What followed is not known. The outcries were heard bj^ mem- bers of Congress and others at the distance of near a quarter of a mile from the scene. " And now, perhaps, you will ask, is not the city aroused by this flagrant cruelty and breach of the peace ? I answer — not at all. Every thing is quiet. If the occurrence is mentioned at all, it is spoken of in whispers." From the Mobile Examiner, August 1, 1837. "police report — mayor's office. Saturday morning , August 12, 1837. " His Honor the Mayor presiding. " Mr. Miller, of the foundry, brouglit to the ofFice this morning a small negro girl aged about eight or ten years, whom he had taken into his house some time during the previous night. She had crawled under the window of his bed room to screen herself from the night air, and to tind a warmer shelter than the open canopy of heaven afforded. Of all objects of pity that have lately come to our view, this poor little girl most needs the protection of authority, and the sympathies of the charitable. From the cruelty of her mas- ter and mistress, she has been whipped, worked and .starved, until she is now a breathing skele- ton, hardly able to stand upon her feet. ''The back of the poor little sufferer, (which we ourselves saw.) was actually cut into strings, and so perfectly was the flesh worn from her limbs, by the wretched treatment she had received, that every joint showed distinctly its crevices and pro- tuberances through the skin. Her little lips clung closely over her teeth — her cheeks were sunken and her head narrowed, and when her eves were closed, the lids resembled film more than flesh or skin. "We would desire of our northern friends such as choose to publish to the world their own ver- sion of the case wc have related, not to forget to add, in conclusion, that the owner of this little girl is a foreigner, speaks against slavery as an institution, and reads his Bible to his wife, with the view of finding proofs for his opinions." Rev. William Scales, of Lyndon, Vermont, gives the following testimony in a recent letter : " I had a class-mate at the Andover Theologi- cal Seminary, who spent a season at the south, — in (jeorgia, I think — who related the following fact in an address before the Seminary. It oeea- fcioncd very deep sensation on the part of op- ponents. Tiic gentleman was Mr. Julius C. An- thony, of Taunton, Mass. He graduated at the Seminary in 1835. I do not know where he is now settled. I have no doubt of the fact, as he was an eye-witness of it. The man with whom he resided had a very athletic slave — a valuable fellow — a blacksmith. On a certain day a small strap of leatlier was missing. The man's little son accused this slave of stealing it. He denied the charge, while the boy most confidently asserted it. The slave was brouglit out into the yard and bound — his hands below his knees, and a stick crossing his knees, so that he would lie upon either side in form of the letter S. One of the overseers laid on fifty lashes — he still denied the theft — was turned over and fifty more put on. Sometimes the master and sometimes the over. seers whipping — as they relieved each other to take breath. Then he was for a time left to himself, and in the course of the day received FOUR HUNDRED L.\sHES — Still denying the charo^c. Next mornhig Mr. Anthony walked out — the sun was just rising — he saw the man greatly enfee- bled, leaning against a stump. It was time to go to work — he attempted to rise, but fell back- again attempted, and again fell back — still mak- ing the attempt, and still falling back, Mr. An- thony thought, nearly twenty times before he succeeded in standing — he then staggered off to his shop. In course of the morning Mr. A. went to the door and looked in. Two overseers were standing hj. The slave was feverish and sick — his skin and mouth dry and parched. He was very thirsty. One of the overseers, while Mr. A. was looking at him, inquired of the other whether it were not best to give him a little water. ' No . damn him, he will do well enough,' was the re. ply from the other overseer. This was all the relief gained by the poor slave. A few days after, the slaveholder's son confessed that he stole the strap himself." Rev. D. C. Eastman, a minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal church at Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, has just forwarded a letter, from which the following is an extract : " George Roebuck, an old and respectable farmer, near Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, says, that almost forty.three years ago, he saw in Bath count3', Virginia, a slave girl with a sore between the shoulders of the size and shape of a smoothing iron. The girl w-as ' owned ' by one M'Neil. A slaveholder who boarded at M'Neil's stated that Mrs. M'Neil had placed the aforesaid iron when hot, between the girl's shoul- ders, and produced the sore. " Roebuck was once at this M'Neil's father's, and whilst the old man was at morning prayer, he heard the son plying the whip upon a slave out of doors. "Eli West, of Concord township, Fayette county, Ohio, formerly of North Carolina, a farmer and an exhorter in the Methodist Pro- testant church, says, that many years since he went to live with an uncle who owned about fifty negroes. Soon after his amval, his uncle ordered his waiting boy, who was naked, to be tied — his hands to ahorse rack, and his feet togethrr, with a rail passed between his legs, and held down by a person at each end. In this position he was whipped, from neck to feet, till covered with blood ; after which he was salted. " His uncle's slaves received one quart of corn each day, and that only, and were allowed one hour each day to cook and cat it. They had no meat but once in the year. Such was the general usage in that country. " West, after this, lived one year with Esquire Starky and mother. They had two hundred Punishments — Floggings. 69 slaves, who received the usual treatment of starv- ation, nakedness, and the cowhide. They had one lil'oly negro woman who bore no children. For til s neglect, her mistress had her back made naked and a severe whipping inflicted. But as she con- tinued barren, she was sold to the ' negro buyers.' "Thomas Larrimer, a deacon in the Presby. tcrian church at Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, and a respectable farmer, says, that in April, 1837, as he was going down the Mississippi river, about fifty miles below Natchez, he saw ahead, on the left side of the river, a colored person tied to a post, and a man with a driver's whip, the lash about eight or ten feet long. With this the man commenced, with much deliberation, to whip, with much apparent force, and continued till he got out of sight. " When coming up the river forty or fifty miles below Vicksburg, a Judge Owens came on board the steamboat. He was owner of a cotton plantation below tliere, and on being told of the above whipping, he said that slaves were often whipped to death for great offences, such as steal- ing, &c. — but that when death followed, the overseers were generally severely reproved ! "About the same time, he spent a night at Mr. Casey's, three miles from Columbia, South Caro- lina. Whilst there they heard liim giving orders as to what was to be done, and amongst other things, ' Tliat nigger must be buried.' On in- quiry, he learnt that a gentleman traveling with a servant, had a short time previous called there, and said his servant had just been taken ill, and he shoidd be under the necessity of leaving him. He did so. The slave became worse, and Casey called in a physician, who pronounced it an old case, and said that he must shortly die. The slave said, if that was the case he would now tell the truth. He had been attacked, a long time since, with a difficulty in the side — his master swore he would ' have his own out of him,' and started off to sell him, with a threat to kill him if he told he had been sick, more than a few days. They saw them making a rough plank box to bury him in. " fn March, 1833, twenty-five or thirty miles south of Columbia, on the great road through Sumpterville district, they saw a large company of female slaves carrying rails and building fence. Three of them were far advanced in pregnancy. " In the month of January, 1838, he put up with a drove of mules and horses, at one Adams', on the Drovers' road, near the south border of Ken- tucky. His son-in-law, who had lived in the south, was there. In conversation about picking cotton, he said, ' some hands cannot get the sleight of it. I have a girl who to-day has done as good a day's work at grubbing as any man, but I could not make her a hand at cotton-pick, ing. I whipped her, and if I did it once I did it five hundred times, but I found she could not ; so I put lier to carrying rails with the men. After a few days I found her shoulders were so raio that every rail was Moody as she laid it down. I asked her if she would not rather pick cotton than carry rails. ' No,' said she, ' I don't get whipped now.' " William A. Ustick, an elder of the Presbyte- rian church at Bloomingburg, and Mr. G. S. Ful- lerton, a merchant and member of the same church, were with Deacon Larrimer on this jour- ney, and are witnesses to the preceding facts. Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col- lege, Ohio, and formerly secretary of the Coloni- zation society in that village, has recently communicated the facts which follow. We quote from his letter. " Tiie following horrid flagellation was wit- nessed in part, till his soul was sick, by Ma. Gliddex, an inhabitant of Marietta, Ohio, who went down the Mississippi river, with a boat load of produce in the autumn of 1837 ; it took place at what is called ' Matthews' or ' Ma- tlicses Bend' in December, 1837. Mr. G. is worthy of credit. " A negro was tied up, and flogged until the blood ran down and filled his shoes, so that when he raised cither foot and set it down again, the blood would run over their tops. I could not look on any longer, hut turned away in horror ; tlie whipping was continued to the number of 500 lashes, as I understood ; a quart of spirits of turpentine was then applied to his lacerated body. The same negro came down to my boat, to get some apples, and was so weak from his wounds and loss of blood, that he could not get up the bank, but fell to the ground. The crime for which the negro was whipped, was that of telling the other negroes, that the overseer had lain with his wifey Mr. Hall adds :— "The following statement is made by a young man from Western Virginia. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a student in Marietta College. All that prevents the introduction of his name, is the peril to his life, which would probably be the consequence, on his return to Virginia. His character for in. tegrity and veracity is above suspicion. ' On the night of the great meteoric shower, in Nov. 1833. I was at Remley's tavern, 12 miles west of Lcwisburg, Greenbrier Co., Virginia. A drove of 50 or GO negroes stopped at the same place that night. They usually ' camp out," but as it was excessively muddy, they were per- mitted to come into the house. So far as my knowledge extends, ' droves,' on their way to the south, eat but twice a day, early in the morn- ing and at night. Their supper was a compound of ' potatoes and meal,' and was, without excep- tion, the dirtiest, blackest looking mess I ever saw. I remarked at the time that the food was not as clean, in appearance, as that which was given to a drove of hogs^ at the same place the night previous. Such as it was, however, a black wo- man brought it on her head, in a tray or trough two and a half feet long, where the men and women were promiscuously herded. The slaves rushed up and seized it from the trough in hand- fulls, before the woman could take itoffher head. They jumped at it as if half-famished. ' They slept on the floor of the room which thej' were permitted to occupy, lying in every form imaginable, males and females, promiscu. ously. They were so thick on the floor, that m passing through the room it was necessary to step over them. ' There were three drivers, one of whom staid 70 Punishments — Floggings. m the room to watch the drove, and the other two slept in an adjoining room. Each of the latter took a female from the drove to lodge with him, as is the common practice of the drivers generally. There is no doubt about this particu- lar instance, fur they were seen together. The mud was so thick on the floor where this drove slept, that it was necessary to take a shovel, the next morning, and clear it out. Six or eight in tliis drove were chained ; all were for the south. ' In the autumn of the same year. 5-aw a drove of upwards of a hundred, between 40 and 50 of them were fastened to one chain, the links being made of iron rods, as thick in diameter as a man's little finger. This drove was bound west- ward to the Ohio river, to be shipped to the south. I have seen many droves, and more or less in each, almost without exception, were chained. I never saw but one drove, that went on their way making merry. In that one they were blowing horns, singing, &:c.,, and appear- ed as if thej' had been drinking whisky. ' They generally appear extremely dejected. I have seen in tlie course of five years, on the road near where I reside, 12 or 15 droves at least, pas- sing to the south. They would average 40 in each drove. Near the first of January, 1834, I started about sunrise to go to Lewisburg. It was a bitter cold morning. I met a drove of negroes, 30 or 40 in number, remarkably ragged and destitute of clothing. One little boy partic- ularly excited my sympathy. He was some dis- tance behind the others, not being able to keep up with the rest. Altliougli he was shivering with cold ind crying, the driver was pushing him Up in a trot to overtake the main gang. All of them looked as if they were half-frozen. There was one remarkable instance of tyranny, ex- hibited by a boy, not more than eight years old, that came under my observation, in a family by the name of D — n, six miles from Lewisburg. This youngster would swear at the slaves, and exert all the strength he possessed, to flog or beat them, with whatever instrument or weapon he could lay hands on, provided they did not obey him instanter. He was encouraged in this by his father, the master of the slaves. The slaves often fled from this young tyrant in terror." Mr. Hall adds :— " The following extract is from a letter, to a student in Marietta College, by his friend in Alabama. With the writer, Mr. Isaac Knapp, I am perfectly acquainted. He was a student in the above College, for the space of one year, before going to Alabama, was formerly a resident of Dummerston, Vt. He is a professor of religion and as wortiiy of belief as any member of the community. Mr. K. has returned from the South, and is now a member of the same college. ' In Jan. (1S38) a negro of a widow Phillips, ranaway, was taken up, and confined in Pulaski jail. One Gibbs, overseer for Mrs. P., mounted on horseback, took him from eonfinemeni, com- pelled him to run back to Elklon, a distance of fifteen miles, whip|iing him all the way. When he reached home, the negro exhausted and worn out, exclaimed ' you have broke my heart,' i. e. you have killed me. For this, Gibbs flew into a violent passion, tied the negro to a stake, and, in the language of a witness, ' cut his back to mince-meat.^ But the fiend was not satisfied with this. He burnt his legs to a blister, with hot em- bers, and then chained him naked, in the open air, weary with running, weak from the loss of blood, and smarting from his burns. It was a cold night — and in the morning the negro was dead. Yet this monster escaped without even the shadoto of a trial. ' The negro,' said the doctor, ' died, by — he knew not what ; any how, Gibbs did not kill him.'* A short time since, (the letter is dated, April, 1838,) ' Gibbs whip- ped another negro unmercifully because the horse, with which he was ploughing, broke the reins and ran. He then raised his whip against Mr. Bowers, (son of Mrs. P.) who shot him. Since I came here,' (a period of about sis months,) ' there have been eight white men and two negroes killed, within 30 miles of me.' * Mr. Knapp, gives iiil' Fnme furtlitr verbal particulars about this attair. He says that his Inforniaiit saw the ncfrro dfad the next morning," that his le?s were Wistcrt'd, iiiitl tliat the negroes affirmed that Gibbs compelled thein to tluovv embers upon hun. But Gibbs denied it, and said the blistering was the efiect of frost, as the negro was much exposed to it before being taken up. Mr. Bowers, a son of Mrs. Phillips by a former husband, attempted to have Gibbs brought to .justice, but his mother justiiiid Gibbs, and nothing was therefore done about it. The af- fair took place in Upper Elkton, Tennessee, near the Ala- bama line. " The following is from Mr. Knapp's own hps, taken down a day or two since. ' Mr. Buster, with whom I boarded, in Lime- stone Co., Ala., related to me the following inci- dent : ' George, a slave belonging to one of the estates in my neigliborhood, was lurking about my residence without a pass. We were making preparations to give him a flogging, but he es- caped from us. Not long afterwards, meeting a patrol which had just taken a negro in custody without a pass, I inquired. Who have you there ? on learning that it was Gemge, well, I rejoined, there is a small matter between him and myself, that needs adjustment, so give me the raw hide, which I accordingly took, and laid 60 strokes on his back, to the utmost of my strength.' I was speaking of this barbarity, afterwards, to Mr. Bradley, an overseer of the liev. Mr. Donncll, who lives in the vicinity of Moresville, Ala., ' Oh,' replied he, ' we consider that a very light whipping here.' Mr. Bradley is a professor of religion, and is esteemed in that vicinity a very pious, exemplary Christian.' " Extract of a letter from Rev. C. Stewart Rensiiaw, of Quincy, Illinois, dated Jan. 1, 1839. " I do not feel at liberty to disclose the name of the brother who has furnished the following facts. He is highly esteemed as a man of scru- pulous veracity. I will confirm my own testimo- ny by the certificate of Judge Snow and Mr. Keyes, two of the oldest and most respectable settlers in Quincy. Quincy, Dec. 20, ]83,'<. " De.ir Sir, — We have been long acquainted with the Christian brother who has named to you some facts that fell under his observation whilst a resident of slave states. He is a member of a Christian cluirch, in good standing ,- and is a man of strict uitegrity of character. Henry H. Snow, WiLLARD Kbyks. Rev. C. Stewart Rcnshaw." Punishments — Floggings . 71 *' My informant spent thirty years of his life in Kentucky and Missouri. Whilst in Kentucky he resided in Hardin co.' I noted down his testimo- ny ver}' nearly in his own words, which will ac- count for their evidence-like form. On the gen- eral condition of the slaves in Kentucky, through Hardin co., he said, their houses were very un- comfortable, generally without floors, other than the earth : many had puncheon floors, but he never remembers to have seen a plank floor. In regard to clothing they were very badly off. In summer they cared little for thing ; but in win- ter they almost froze. Their rags might hide their nakedness from the sun in summer, but would not protect thera from the cold in winter. Their bed-clothes were tattered rags, thrown into a corner by day, and drawn before the fire by night. ' The only thing,' said he, ' to which I can com- pare them, in winter, is stock without a shelter.' " He made the following comparison between the condition of slaves in Kentucky and Missouri. So far as he was able to- compare them, he said, that in Missouri the slaves had better quarters — but arc not so well clad, and are more severely pun- ished than in Kentuck}'. In both states, the slaves are huddled together, without distinction of sex, into the same quarter, till it is filled, then another is built ; often two or three families in a log hovel, twelve feet square. " It is proper to state, that the sphere of my in- formant's observation was mamly in the region of Hardin co., Kentucky, and the eastern part of Missouri, and not through those states generally. '•Whilst at St. Louis, a number of years ago, as he was going to work with Mr. Henry Males, and another carpenter, they heard groans from a barn by the road-side : they stopped, and looking through the cracks of the barn, saw a negro bound hand and foot to a post, so that his toes just touched the ground ; and his master. Captain Thorpe, was inflicting punishment ; he had whip- ped him till exliausted, — rested himself, and re- tm-ned again to the punishment. The wretched sufferer was in a most pitiable condition, and the warm blood and dry dust of the barn had formed a mortar up to his instep. Mr Males jumped the fence, and remonstrated so etfectually with Capt. Thorpe, that he ceased the punishment. It was six weeks before that slave could put on his shirt ! "John Mackey, a rich slaveholder, lived near Clarksville, Pike co., Missom-i, some years since. He whipped his slave Billy, a boy fourteen years old, till he was sick and stupid ; he then sent him home. Then, for his stupidity, whipped him again, and fractmxd his skull with an axe-helve. He buried him away in the woods ; dark words were whispered, and the body was disinterred. A coroner's inquest was held, and Mr. R. Anderson, the coroner, brought in a verdict of death from fractured skull, occasioned by blows from an axe- handle, inflicted by John Mackey. The case was brought into court, but Mackey was rich, and his murdered victim was his slave ; after ex- pending about ^500 he walked free. " One Mrs. Mann, living near , in co., Missouri, was known to be very cruel to her slaves. She had a bench made purposely to whip them upon ; and what she called her " six pound paddle," an instrument of prodigious torture, bored through with holes ; this she would wield i with both hands as she stood over her prostrate victim. " She thus punished a hired slave woman named Fanny, belonging to Mr. Charles Trabue, who lives near Palmyra, Marion co., Missouri ; on the morning after the punishment Fanny was a corpse ; she was silently and quickly buried, but rumor was. not so easily stopped. "\Ir. Trabue heard of it, and commenced suit for his property. The murdered slave was disinterred, and an in. quest held ; her back was a mass of jellied mus cle ; and the coroner brought in a verdict of death by the ' six pound paddle.' Mrs. Mann fled for a few months, but returned again, and her friends found means to protract the suit. "This same Mrs. Mann had another hired slave woman living with her, called Patterson's Fanny, she belonged to a Mr. Patterson ; she had a young babe with her, just beginning to creep. One day, after washing, whilst a tub of rinsing water yet stood in the kitchen, Mrs. Mann came out in haste, and sent Fanny to do something out of doors. Fanny tried to beg off" — she was afraid to leave her babe, lest it should creep to the tub and get hurt — Mrs. M. said she would watch the babe, and sent her off". She went with nmch re. luctance, and heard the child struggle as she went out the door. Fearing lest Mrs. M. should leave the babe alone, she watched the room, and soon saw her pass out of the opposite door. Im- mediately Fanny hurried in, and looked around for her babe, she could not see it, she looked at the tub — there her babe was floating, a strangled corpse. The poor woman gave a dreadful scream ; and Mrs. M. rushed into the room, with her hands raised, and exclaimed, ' Heavens, Fanny ! have you drowned your child ?' It was vain for the poor bereaved one to attempt to vindicate herself: in vain she attempted to convince them that the babe had not been alone a moment, and could not have drowned itself; and that she had not been in the house a moment, before she scream- ed at discovering her drowned babe. All was false ! Mrs. Mann declared it was all pretence — that Fanny had drowned her own babe, and now wanted to lay the blame upon her ! and Mrs. Mann was a white woman — of course her word was more valuable than the oaths of all the slaves of Missouri. No evidence but that of slaves could be obtained, or Mr. Patterson would have prose- cuted for his ' loss of property.' As it was, every one believed Mrs. M. guilty, though the affair was soon hushed up." Extract of a letter from Col. Thomas Rogers, a native of Kentucky, now an elder in the Pres. byterian Church at New Petersburg, Highland CO., Ohio. " When a boy, in Bourbon co., Kentucky, my father lived near a slaveholder of the name of Clay, who had a large number of slaves ; I remem- ber being often at their quarters ; not one of their shanties, or hovels, had any floor but the earth. Their clothing was truly neither fit for covering nor decency. We could distinctly, of a still morn- ing, hear this man whipping his blacks, and hear their screams from my father's farm : this could be heard almort any still morning about the dawn of day. It was said to be his usual custom to re. 72 Punishments — Tortures. pair, about the break of day, to their cabin doors, and, as the blacks passed out, to give them as many strokes of his cowskin as opportunity af- forded ; and he would proceed in this manner from cabin to cabin until thcv were all out. Occa- sionally some of his slaves would abscond, and upon being retaken they were punished severely ; and some of them, it is believed, died in conse- (juence of the cruelty of their usage. I saw one of this man's slaves, about seventeen years old, wearing a collar, with long iron horns extending from his shoulders far above his head. " In the winter of 1828-29 I traveled through part of the states of Maryland and Virginia to Baltimore. At Frost Town, on the national road, I put up for the night. Soon after, there came in a slaver with his drove of slaves ; among them were two young men, chained together. The bar room was assigned to them for their place of lodging — those in chains were guarded when they had to go out. I asked the ' owner' why he kept these men chained ; he replied, that they were stout young fellows, and should they rebel, he and his son would not be able to manage them. I then left the room, and shortly after heard a scream, and when the landlady inquired the cause, the slaver coolly told her not to trouble herself, he was only chastising one of his women. It appear- ed that three days previously her child had died on the road, and been thrown into a hole or cre- vice in the mountain, and a few stones thrown over it ; and the mother weeping for her child was chastised by her master, and told by him, she ' should have something to cry for.' The name of this man I can give if called for. " When engaged in this journey I spent about one month with my relations in Virginia. It be- ing shortly after new year, the time of hiring was over ; but I saw the pounds, and the scaffolds which remained of the pounds, in which the slaves had been penned up." Mr. George W. Westgate, of Quincy, Illi- nois, who lived in the southwestern slave states a number of years, has furnished the following state- ment. "The great mass of the slaves are under drivers and overseers. I never saw an overseer without a whip ; the whip usually carried is a short loaded stock, with a heavy lash from five to six feet lonf . When they whip a slave they make him pull oft his shirt, if he has one, then niake him lie down on his face, and taking their stand at the length of the lash, they inflict the punishment. Whip- pings are so universal that a negro that has not been whipped is talked of in all the region as a wonder. By whipping I do not mean a few lashes across the shoulders, but a set flogging, and gen- erally lying down. " On sugar plantations generally, and on some cotton plantations, they have negro drivers, who are in such a degree responsible for their gang, that if they are at fault, the driver is whipped. The result is, the gang are constantly driven by him to the extent of the influence of the lash ; and it is uniformly the case that gangs dread a negro driver more than a white overseer. " I spent a winter on widow Calvert's planta- tion, near Rodney, Mississippi, but was not in a situation to sec extraordinary punishments. Bel- lows, the o\'crseer, for a trifling dSlnce, took one of the slaves, stripped him, and with a piece of burning wood applied to his posteriors, burned him cruelly ; while the poor wretch screamed in the greatest agony. The principal preparation for punishment that Bellows had, was single hand- cufl's made of iron, with chains, by which the of- fender could be chained to four stakes on the ground. These are very common in all the lower country. I noticed one slave on widow Calvert's plantation, who was whipped from twenty-five to fifty lashes every fortnight during the whole win- ter. I'he expression ' whipped to death,' as ap- plied to slaves, is common at the south. " Several years ago I was going below New-Or. leans, in what is called the Plaqucmine coimtry, and a planter sent down in my boat a runaway he had found in New-Orleans, to his plantation at Orange 5 Points. As we came near the Points he told me, with deep feeling, that he expected to be whipped almost to death ; pointing to a grave, yard, he said, ' There lie five who were whipped to death.' Overseers generally keep some of the women on the plantation; I scarce know an ex- ception to this. Indeed, their intercourse with them is very much promiscuous, — they show them not much, if any favor. Masters frequently fol- low the example of their overseers in this thing. " George W. Westgate." II, TORTURES, BY IRON COLLARS, CHAINS, FETTERS, HANDCUFFS, &c. The slaves are often tortured by iron collars, with long prongs or " horns." and sometimes bells attached to them — they are made to wear chains, handcuffs, fetters, iron clogs, bars, rings, and bands of iron upon their limbs, iron marks upon their faces, iron gags in their mouths, &c. In proof of this, we give the testimony ofslave. holders themselves, under their own names ; it will be mostly in the form of extracts from their own advertisements, in southern newspapers, in which, deecribing their runaway elaves, they spe- cify the iron collars, handcuffs, chains, fetters, &c., which they wore upon their necks, wrists, ankles, and other parts of their bodies. To pub. lish the ivhole of each advertisement, would need- lessly occupy space and lax the reader ; we shall consequently, as heretofore, give merely the name of the advertiser, the name and date of tlic news- paper containing the advertisement, with the place of publication, and only so much of the advertise- ment as will give the particular fact, proving the truth of the assertion contained in the general head. Punishments — Tortures. 73 WITNESSES. Wiiliam Toler, sheriff of Simpson county, Mississippi, in the "Southern c>U!i," Jacitsou, Mississippi, September '», 1838. Mr. James R. Green, in the " Beacon," Groensborough, Alabama, August 23, 1838. Mr. Hazlet Lnflano, in tlie " Specta- tor," Staunton, Virginia, Sept. 27, 183^. TESTIMONY. " Was committed to jail, a yellow boy named Jim — had on a large lock chain around his neck." Ranaway, a negro man named Squire — had on a chain locked with a house-lock, around his neck." " Ranaway, a negro named David — with some iron hobbles around each ankle," Mr. T. Enggy, New Orleans, GaUa- tin street, between Hospital and Bar- raclts, N. O. " Bee," Oct. '27, 1837. Mr. John Henderson, Washington, county. Mi., in tlie " Grand Gulf Adver- tiser," August 2J, 1833. William Dyer, sheriff, Claiborne, Louisiana, in the " Herald," Natchi- toches, (La.) July 26, 1837. Mr. Owen Cooke, " Mary street, be- tween Common and Jackson streets," New Orleans, in the N. O. " Bee," Sep- tember 12, 1837. H. W. Rice, sheriff, Colleton district, .South Carolina, in the " Charleston Mercury," September 1, 1838. W. P. Reeves, jailor, Shelby county, Tennessee, in the " Memphis Enquirer, June 17, 1837. Mr. Francis Uurett, Lexington, Lau- derdalj county, Ala., in the " Hunts- ville Democrat," August 29, 1837. Mr. .\. Murat, Baton Rouge, in tlie New Orleans " Bee," June 20, 1837. Mr. Jordan Abbott, in the " Huntsville Democrat," Nov. 17, 1838. Mr. J. Alacoin, No. 177 Arm street, New Orleans, in tlie " Bee," August 11, 1838. Menard Brothers, parish of Ber- nard, Louisiana, in the N. O. "Bee," August 18, 1838. Messrs. J. L. and W. H. Bolton, Shel- by county, Tennessee, in tlie " Memphis Enquirer," June 7, 1337. H. Gridly, sheriff of Adams county. Mi., in the'-M.mphis (Tenn.) Times," September, 1S34. Mr. Lambre, in the " Natchitoclies (La.) Herald," March 29, 1837. Mr. Ferdinand Lemos, New Orleans, in the "Bee," January 29, 18 '8. Mr. T. J. De Yanipcrt, merchant, Mo- bile, Alabama, of the firm of De Yam- pert, King & Co., in the " MobUe Chron- icle," June 15, 18J8. J. H. Hand, jailor, St. Francisville, La., in the "Louisiana Chronicle," July 26, 1837. Mr. Charles Curcner, New Orleans, in tiie " Bee," July 2, 1333. Mr. P. T. Manning, Huntsville, Ala- bama, Id the "Huntsville Advocate," Oct. 23, 1338. Mr. William L. Lamb.?th, Lynch- burg, Virginia, in the " Moulton f Ala.] Wlfig," January 30, 1836. " Ranaway, negress Caroline — had on a collar with one prong turned down," " Ranaway, a black woman, Betsey — had an iron bar on her right leg." " Was committed to jail, a negro named Ambrose — has a ring of iron around his neck." " Ranaway, my slave Amos, had a chain attached to one of his legs." " Committed to jail, a nejjro named Patrick, about forty-five years old, and is handcuffed." " Committed to jail, a negro — had on his right leg an iron band with one link of a chain." " Ranaway, a negro man named Charles — had on a dravoing chain, fastened aroimd his ankle with a house lock." "Ranaway, the negro Manuel, much marked with irons." " Ranaway, a negro boy named Daniel, about nineteen years old, and was handcuffed." " Ranaway, the negress Fanny — had on an iron band about her neck." " Ranaway, a negro named John — having an iron around his right foot." "Absconded, a colored boy named Peter — had s.n iron round his neck when he went away." "Was committed to jail, a negro boy — ^liadona large neck iron with a huge pair of horns and a large bar or band of iron on his left leg." " Ranaway, the negro boy Teams — he had on his neck an iron collar." " Ranaway, the negro George — he had on his neck an iron collar, the branches of which had been taken off." " Ranaway, a negro boy about twelve years old — had round his neck a chain dog-collar, with ' De Yampert engraved on it." " Committed to jail, slave John — has several scars on his wrists, occasioned, as he saj's, by handcuffs." " Ranaway, the negro, Hown — has a ring of iron on his left foot. Also,Grisee,his loife, having a ring and chain on the left leg." " Ranaway, a negro boy named James — said boy was ironed when he left me." " Ranaway, Jim — had on when he escaped a pair of chain haniL cuffs.'' 74 Punishments — Tortures. Mr. D. F. Guex, Socrctaiy of the Steam Cotton Prrss Coiiipiiiiy, A>vv Or- l(>ans, in the " Coininurcial BuUetin," May 07, 1837. Mr. Francis Diirett, Lpxinston, Ala- bama, in till! " lluntsvillc Democrat," March 8, 1838. B. W. Hodgrp, jailor. Pike county, Alabama, in the " Montijoniery Adver- tiser," Sept. 29, 1837. P. Bayhi, captain of police, in the N. O. •' B-je," June y, 1838. Mr. Charles Kernin, parish of Jeffer- son, Louisiana, in the N. O. "Bee," August 11, 1837. The foregoing advertisements are sufficient for our purpose, scores of similar ones may be gather- ed from the newspapers of the slave states every month. To the preceding testimony of slaveholders, published by themselves, and vouched for by their own signatures, we subjoin the following testi- mony of other witnesses to the same point. John M. Nelson, Esq., a native of Virginia, now a highly respected citizen of Highland county, Ohio, and member of the Presbyterian Church in Hillsborough, in a recent letter states the fol- lowing : — " In Staunton, Va., at the house of Mr. Robert M'Dovvell, a merchant of that place, I once saw a colored woman, of intelligent and dignified ap- pearance, who appeared to be attending to the business of the house, with an iron collar around her neck, with horns or prongs extending out on either side, and up, until they met at something like a foot above her head, at which point there was a bell attached. This yoke, as they called it, I understood was to prevent her from running away, or to punish her for having done so. I had frequently seen men with iron collars, but this was the first instance that I recollect to have seen a female thus degraded." Major Horace Nye, an elder in the Presbyte- rian Church at Putnam, Muskingum county, Ohio, in a letter, dated Dec. 5, 1838, makes the following statement: — ' Mr. Wm. Armstrong, of this place, who is frequently employed by our citizens as captain and supercargo of descending boats, whose word maybe relied on, has just made to me the follow- ing statement : — "While laying at Alexandria, on Red River, Louisiana, he saw a slave brought to a black- gmith's shop and a collar of iron fastened round his neck, with two pieces rivettcd to the sides, meeting some distanoe above his head. At the top of the arch, thus formed, was attached a large cow-bell, the motion of which, while walking the streets, made it necessary for the slave to hold his hand to one of its sides, to steady it. " In New Orleans ho saw several with iron col- lars, with horns attached to them. The first he saw had three prongs projecting from the collar ten or twelve inches, with the letter S on the end of each. He says iron collars are quite frequent there. "Ranaway, Edmund Coleman — it is supposed he must have iron shackles on his ankles." '' Ranaway , a mulatto — had on when he left, a pair oj handcuffs and a pair of drawing chains." " Committed to jail, a man who calls his name John — he has s. clog of iron on his right foot which will weigh four or five pounds." " Detained at the police jail, the negro wench Myra — has several marks of lashing, and has irons on her feet." " Ranaway, Betsey — when she left she had on her neck an iron collar." To the preceding Major Nye adds : — " When I was about twelve years of age I lived at Marietta, in this state : I knew little of slaves, as there were few or none, at that time, in the part of Virginia opposite that place. But I re- member seeing a slave who had run away from some place beyond ni}' knowledge at that time : he had an iron collar round his neck, to which was a strap of iron rivettcd to tiie collar, on each side, passing over the top of the head ; and ano- ther strap, from the back side to the top of the first — thus inclosing the head on three sides. I looked on while the blacksmith severed the collar with a file, which, I think, took him more than an hour." Rev. John Dudley, Mount Morris, Pilicbigan, resided as a teacher at the irjissionary station, among the Choctaws, in Mississippi, during the years 1830 and 31. In a letter just received Mr. Dudley says : — " During the time I was on missionary ground, which was in 1830 and 31, 1 was frequently at the residence of the agent, who was a slaveholder. — I never knew of his treating his own slaves with cruelty ; but the poor fellows who were escaping, and lodged with him when detected, found no clemency. I once saw there a fetter for ' the d — d runaioays,' the weight of which can be judged by its size. It was at least three inches wide, half an inch thick, and somclhing over a foot long. At this time I saw a poor fellow compelled to work in the field, at 'logging,' _ with such a galling fetter on his ankles. To prevent it from wearing his ankles, a siring was tied to the centre, by which the victim suspended it when he walked, with one hand, and with the other carried his bur- den. Wlienever he lifted, the fetter rested on his bare ankles. If he lost his balance and made a mis- step, which must very often occur in lifting and rolling logs, the torture of his fetter M^as severe. Thus he was doomed to work while wearing the torttiring iron, day after day, and at night he was confined in the runaways' jail. Some time after this, I saw the same dejected, heart-broken crea- ture obliged to wait on the other hands, who were husking corn. The privilege of sitting with the others was too much for him to enjoy ; he was made to hobble from house to bam and barn to house, to carry food and drink for tbe rest. Ho passed round the end of the house where I was sitting witli the agent : he si'cmed to take no no- tice of me, but fixed his eyes on his tormentor till he passed quite by us." Punishments — Tortures. 75 Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, member of the Baptist Church in Skcneateles, N. Y. and an assessor of that town, testifies as follows : — " I stayed Ijl New Orleans three weeks : during that time there used to pass by where I stayed a number of slaves, each with an iron band around his ankle, a chain attached to it, and an eighteen pound ball at the end. They were employed in wheelin^r dirt with a wheelbarrow ; they would put the ball into the barrow when they moved. — I recollect one day, that I counted nineteen of tliem, sometimes there were not as many ; they were driven by a slave, with a long lash, as if they were bpasts. These, I learned, were runaway sla%'cs from the plantations above New Orleans. " There was also a negro woman, that used daily to come to the market with milk ; she had an iron band around her neck, with three rods projecting from it, about sixteen inches long, crooked at the ends." For the fact which follows we are indebted to Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta College, Oliio. We quote his letter. " Mr. CuR-Tis, a journeyman cabinet-maker, of Marietta, relates the following, of which he was an eye witness. Mr. Curtis is every way worthy of credit. " In September, 1837, at ' Milligan's Bend,' in the Mississippi river, I saw a negro with an iron band around his head, locked behind with a pad- lock. In the front, where it passed the mouth, there was a projection inward of an inch and a half, which entered the mouth. " Tlie overseer told me, he was so addicted to running avvay, it did not do any good to whip him for it. He said he kept this gag constantly on him, and intended to do so as long as ho was on the plantation : so that, if he ran away, he could not eat, and would starve to death. The slave asked for drink in my presence ; and the overseer made him lie down on his back, and turned wa- ter on his face tvi^o or three feet high, in order to torment him, as he could not swallow a drop. — The slave then asked permission to go to the ri- ver; which being granted, he thrust his face and head entirely under the water, tliat being the only way he could drink with his gag on. The gag was taken off when he took his food, and then re- placed afterwards." Extract of a Letter, from Mrs. Sophia Lit- tle, of Newport, Rhode Island, daughter of Hon. Asher Robbins, senator in Congress for that state. " There was lately found, in the hold of a vessel engaged in the southern trade, by a person who v;as cleiring it out, an iron collar, with three horns projecting from it. It seems that a young female slave, on whose slender neck was rivet- ed this fiendish instrument of torture, ran away from her tyrant, and begged the captain to bring her olT with iiim. This the captain refused to do; butunrivcted the collar from her neck, and threw it away in the hold of the vessel. The collar is now at the anti-slavery office, Providence. To tlie truth of these facts Mr. William H. Reed, a gentleman of the highest moral character, is ready to vouch. " Mr. Reed is in possession of many facts of cruelty witnessed by persons of veracity; but these witnesses are not willing to give their names. One case in particular he mentioned. Speaking with a certain captain, of the state of the slaves at the south, the captain contended that their punishments were often very /e/HCHi; and, as an instance of their excellent clemency, mentioned, that in one instance, not wishing to whip a slave, they sent him to a blacksmith, and had an iron band fastened around him, with three long pro- jections reaching above his head ; and this he wore some time." Extract of a letter from Mr. Jonathan F. Baldwin, of Lorain county, Ohio. Mr. B. was formerly a merchant in Massillon, Ohio, and an elder in the Presbyterian Church there. " Dear Brother, — In conversation with Judge Lyman, of Litchfield county, Connecticut, last June, he stated to me, that several years since he was in Columbia, South Carolina, and observing a colored man lying on the floor of a blacksmith's shop, as he was passing it, his curiosity led him in. He learned the man was a slave and rather unmanageable. Several men were attempting to detach from his ankle an iron which had been bent around it. " The iron was a piece of a flat bar of the or- dinary size from the forge hammer, and bent around the ancle, tlie ends meeting, and forming a hoop of about the diameter of the leg. There was one or more strings attached to the iron and extending up around his neck, evidently so to suspend it as to prevent its galling by its weight when at work, yet it had galled or griped till the leg had swollen out beyond the iron and inflamed and supurated, so that the leg for a considerable distance above and below the iron, was a mass of putrefaction, the most loathsome of any wound he had ever witnessed on any living creature. The slave lay on his back on the floor, with his leg on an anvil which sat also on the floor, one man had a chisel used for splitting iron, and ano- ther struck it with a sledge, to drive it betvv-een the ends of the hoop and separate it so that it might be taken off". Mr. Lyman said that the man swung the sledge over his shoulders as if splitting iron, and struck many blows before he succeeded in parting the ends of the iron at all, the bar was so large and stubborn — at length they spread it as far as they could without driv- ing the chisel so low as to ruin the leg. The slave, a man of twenty-five years, perhaps, whose coun- tenance was the index of a mind ill adapted to the degradations of slavery, never uttered a word or a groan in all the process, but the copious flow of sweat from every pore, the dreadful contractions and distortions of every muscle in his body, show- ed clearly the great amount of his suflterings; and all this while, such was the diseased state of the limb, that at every blow, the bloody, corrupt- ed matter gushed out in all directions several feet, in such profusion as literally to cover a large area around the anvil. After various other fruitless attempts to spread the iron, they concluded it was necessary to weaken by filing before it could be got off", which he left them attempting to do." Mr. V/illiam Drown, a well knowTi citizen of Rhode Island, formerly of Providence, who has 76 Punishments — Tortures. traveled in nearly all the s^ avc states, thus testi- lies in a recent letter : " I recollcet seeing large gangs of slaves, gc- neraliy a considerable number in each gang, be. inor chained, passing westward over the moun- tains from Maryland, Virginia, &c. to the Ohio. On that river I have frequently seen flat boats loaded with them, and their keepers armed with pistols and dirks to giiarJ them. " At New Orleans I recollect seeing gangs of slaves that were driven out every day, the Sab- bath not excepted, to work on the streets. These had heavy chains to connect two or more to- gether, and some had iron collars and yokes, &c. The noise as they walked, or worked in their chains, was truly dreadful." Rev. Thomas Savage, pastor of the Congrega- tional Church at Bedford, New Hampshire, who was for some years a resident of Mississippi and Louisiana, gives the following fact, in a letter dat- ed January 9, 1839. " In 1819, while employed as an instructor at Second Creek, near Natchez, Mississippi,! resided on a plantation where I witnessed the following circumstance. One of the slaves was in the habit of running away. He had been repeatedly taken, and repeatedly wl lipped, with great s'c verity, but to no purpose. He would still seize the first op- portunify to escape from the plantation. At last his owner declared, I'll fix hiin, I'll put a stop to liis running away. He accordingly took him to a blacksmith, and had an iron head-frame made for him, which may be called lock-jaw, from the use that was made of it. It had a lock and key, and was so constructed, that when on the head and locked, the slave could not open his mouth to take food, and the design was to prevent his run- ning away. But the device proved unavailing. He was soon missing, and whether by his own despe- rate effort, or the aid of others, contrived to sus. tain himself with food ; but he was at last taken, and if my memory serves me, his life was soon terminated by the cruel treatment to wliich he was subjected." The Western Luminary, a religious paper pub- lished at Lexington, Kentucky, in an editorial article, in the summer of 1 833, says : " A few weeks since we gave an account of a company of men, women and children, part of v/hom were manacled, passing through our streets. Last week, a number of sla pes were driven through the main street of our city, among whom were a number manacled together, two abreast, all con- nected by, and supporting a heaiiij iron chain, which extended the whole length of the line." TESTIMONY OF A VIRGINIAN. The najnc of this witness cannot be published, as it would put him in peril ; but his credibility is vouched for by the Rev. Ezra Fisher, pastor of the Baptist Churcli, Qnincy, Illinois, and Dr. Richard Eels, of the same place. These gen- tlemen say of him, " We have great confidence in liis integrity, discretion, and strict Christian principle." He says — " About five years ago, I remember to have passed, in a single day, four droTes of slaves for the south west ; the largest drove had 350 slarcs in it, and the smallest upwards of 200. I count- ed 68 or 70 in a single coffle. The ' cofflc chain' is a chain fastened at one end to the centre of the bar of a pair of hand cuffs, which are fasten- ed to the right wrist of one, and the left wrist of another slave, they standing abreast, and the chain between them. Tliese are the head of the eoflle. The other end is passed through a rinw in the bolt of the next handcuffs, and the slaves being manacled thus, two and two togetlier, walk up, and the coffle chain is passed, and they go up towards the head of the cofilc. Of course they arc closer or wider apart in the coffle, ac- cording to the number to be coffled, and to the length of the chain. / have seen iu'ndreds of droves and chain-coffles of this description, and every cofile was a scene of misery and wo, of tears and brokenness of heart." Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col- lege, Ohio, gives, in a late letter, the following ; • atcment of a fellow student, from Kentucky, of ~ \\ hom he says, " he is a professor of religion, and worthy of entire confidence." " I have seen at \ca.st fifteen droves of ' human cattle,' passing by us on their way to the south ; and I do not recollect an exception, where there were not more or less of them chained together." Mr. George P. C. Hussey, of Fayctteville, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, writes thus : " I was born and raised in Hagerstown, Wash- ington county, Maryland, where slavery is per- haps milder than in any other part of the slave states ; and yet I have seen hundreds of colored men and women chained together, two by two, and driven to the south. I have seen slaves tied up and lashed till the blood ran down to their heels." Mr. GiDDiNGS, member of Congress from Ohio, in his speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 13, 1839, made the following statement : " On the beautiful avenue in front of the Capi- tol, members of Congress, during this session, have been compelled to turn aside from their path, to permit a eoflle of slaves, males and fe- males, chained to each other by their necks, to pass on their way to this national slave 7narhet." Testimony of James K. Paulding, Esq. the pre- sent Secretary of the LTnited States' Navy. In 1817, Mr. Paulding published a work, en- titled ' Letters from the South, written during an excursion in the summer of 1816.' In the first volume of that work, page 128, Mr. P. gives the following description : " The sun was sliining out very hot — and in turning the angle of the road, we encountered the '•< following group : first, a little cart drawn by one 9 horse, in which five or six half naked black child- ren were tumbled like pigs together. The cart had no covering, and they seemed to have been broiled to sleep. Behind the cart marched three black women, with head, neck and breasts un- covered, and without shoes or stockin<];s : next came three men, bare-headed, and chained to- gether zcith an ox.chain. Last of all, came a . white man on horse back, carrying his pistols in Punishments — Brandinsjs. 77 his belt, and who, as we passed him, had the im- pudence to look us in the face without blushing. At a house where we stopped a little further on, we learned that he had bought these miserable beings in Maryland, and was marching them in this manner to one of the more southern states, yiiame on the State of Maryland I and I say, shame on the State of Virginia ! and every state through which this wretched cavalcade was per- mitted to pass lido say, that when they (the slave- holders) permit such flagrant and indecent out- rages upon humanity as that I have described ; %vhen they sanction a villain in thus marching half naked women and men, loaded with chains, without being charged with any crime but that of being black, from one section of the United States to another, hundreds of miles in the face of day, they disgrace themselves, and the coun- try to which they belong."* * Tlie fact that Mr. Paulding, in the reprint of these " Letters," in 1835, struck out this passaire with all others disparaging to slavery and its supporters, docs not impair the force of his testimony, however much it may sink tlie nnn. Nor will the next generatio.i regard with any more reverence, liis character as a p;-o;)Ac«, because in tlie edition of 1835, two years after the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed, and when its auxiliaries were numbered by hundreds, he inserted a prediction, that such movements would bo made at the North, with most disastrous results. " Wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine !" Mr. Paulding has already been taught by Judge Jay, that lie who aspires to the fame of an oracle, without its in spiration, must resort to other expedients to prevent detection, than the clumsy one of antedating his responses. III. BRANDINGS, MAIMINGS, GUN-SHOT WOUNDS, &c. The slaves are often branded with hot irons, pu rsued with fire arms and shot, hunted with dogs and torn by them, shockingly maimed with knives, dirks, &c. ; have their ears cut off, their eyes knocked out, their bones dislocated and broken with bludgeons, their fingers and toes cut off, their faces and other parts of their persons disfigured with scar.s and gashes, besides those made with the lash. We shall adopt, under this head the same course as that pursued under previous ones, — first give the testimony of the slaveholders themselves, to the mutilations, &c. by copying their own graphic descriptions of them, in advertisements published under their own names, and in news- papers published in the slave states, and, general- ly, in their own immediate vicinity. We shaJ, as heretofore, insert only so much of each adver- tisement as will be necessary to make the point intelligible. WITNESSES. Mr. Micajah Ricks, Nash County, Nortli Carolina, in the Raleigh " Stand- ard," July 18, 1838. Mr. Asa B. Metcalf, Kingston, Adams Co. Mi. in ttie "Natchez Courier," June 15, 1832. Mr. William Overstrcet, Benton, Yazoo Co. Mi. in the " Lexuigton (Kentucky) Observer," July 32, 1838. Mr. R. V. Carney, Clark Go. Ala., In the Mobile Register, Dec. 22, 18J2. M tlie Ir. J. Guylcr, Savannah Georgia, in " Republican," April 12, 1837. J. A. Brown, jailor, Charleston, South Carolina, in the " Mercury," Jan. 12, 1837. Mr. J Scrivener, Herring Bay, Anne Arundel Co. Maryland, in the_ Anna- polis Republican, April 18, 1837. Madame Burvant, comer of Chartrcs and Toulouse streets, New Orleans, in the "Bee," Dec. 21, 1838. Mr. O. W. Lains, in the " Helena, (Ark.) Journal," June 1, 1833. Mr. R. W. Sizer, in the " Grand Gulf, fMi.] Advertiser," July 8, 1837. Mr. Nicholas Edmunds, in the " Petersburgh [Va.l Intelligncer," May 22,1838. TESTIMONY. " Ranaway, a negro woman and two children ; a few days be- fore she went off, / burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face, / tried to make the letter M." " Ranaway Mary, a black woman, has a scar on her back and right arm near the shoulder, caused by a rifle ball" '' Ranaway a negro man named Henry, his left eye out, some scars from a dirk on and under his left arm, and viuch scarred with the whip." One hundred dollars reward for a negro fellov/ Pompcy, 40 years old, he is branded on the left jaw. " Ranaway Laman, an old negro man, grey, has only one eye." " Committed to jail a negro man, has no toes on his left foot." " Ranaway negro man Elijah, has a scar on his left cheek, apparently occasioned b}' a shot." " Ranaway a negro woman named Rachel, has lost all her toei> except the large one." " Ranaway Sam, he was sAoi a short time since, through the hand, and has several shots in his left arm and side." '' Ranaway my negro man Dennis, said negro has been shot I'm the left arm between the shoulders and elbow, which has jparalyzcd the left hand." '' Ranaway my negro man named Simon, he has bfcii shot badly in his back and rijht arm." 78 Punishments — Brandings. Mr. J. Bishop, BishopvUle, Sumpter District, Soutli Carolina, in tile " Cam- den [S. C] Journal," March 4, 1837. Mr. S gia, in July 3, 1837 " Ranaway a negro named Arthur, has a considerable scar aeross his lireast and each arm, made by a knife ; loves to talk much of the goodness of God." " Ranaway George, ho has a sword cut lately received on his left arm." ! Ncyle, bittle Ogeechee, Geor- the " Savannah Republican,' " Tv7enty five dollars reward for my man Isaac, he has a scar rs. Sarah Walsh, Mobile, Ala. in on his forehead caused by a blow, and one on his back made by a "Gcor!;ia Journal," March 27,1^37, gf^gf fro7n a pistol." '' Ranaway a negro girl called Mary, has a small scar over ST eye, a good many tee^ her cheek and forehead." Ranaway negro Ben, has a scar on his right hand, his thumb Mr. Ely Tovvnsentl, Pike Co. Ala., in and fore finger being injured by being s/«o« last fall, apartof < Ac 6one e " Pcnsacola Gazette," Sep. 16, 1837. , , , . , his back and hins," Mrs the Mr. J. p. Ashford, Adams Co. Mi. in her eye, a good many teeth missing, the letter A. is branded on tUe"NatchezCourier," August 24, 1838. ;,^^/./,„„t „„w /•->,-„;,„-,^ » the S. B. Murphy, jailer, Irvington, Ga. fn the " Millcdgf ville Journal," May 29, 1838. Mr. A. Luminals, Parish of St. John, Louisiana, in the New Orleans " Bee," March 3, 1838. Jlr. Isaac Johnson, Pulaski Co. Georgia, in the " MilledgeviUe Journal," June 19, 1838. Mr. Thomas Hudn.iU, Madison Co. Mi. in the " Vicksburg Register," aoptembcr 5, 1838. Mr. John McMurrain, Columbus, Ga. in the " Southern Sun," August 7, 1838. Mr. Bloses Orme, Annapolis, Mary- land, in the " Annapolis Republican," June 20, 1837. WiUiarn Strickland, Jailor, Kershaw District, S. C. In the " Camden [S. C] Courier," July 8, 1837. The Editor of the " Grand Gulf Adver- tiser," Dec. 7, 1838. Mr. William Batoman, in the " Grand Gulf Advertiser," Dec. 7, 1838. Mr. B. G. Simmons, in the " Southern Argus," May 30, 1837. Mr. James Artop, in the " Macon fGa.]Messenger, May 25, 1837. J. L. Jolley, Sheriff of Clinton, Co. Mi., in the " Cluiton Gazette," July 23, 1636. Mr. Thomas Ledwith, Jacksonville F.ast Florida, in the " Charleston [S. C] Courier, Sept. 1, 1838. Mr Joseph James, Sen., Pleasant Ridge, Paulding Co. Ga., in the " Mil- ledgeviUe Union," Nov. 7, 1837. Mr. W. Riley, Orangeburg .District, South Carolina, in the " C_of his nose is bit off." '' Ranaway, a negro fellow called Hover — has a cut above the right eye." " Ranaway, the negro man Hardy — has a scar on the upper lip, and another made with a knife on his neck." " Ranaway, Henry — has half of one ear bit off." " Ranaway, my negro man Jacob — he has but one cyeT PMnw/tments— Branding, Maiming, Scars. 81 William Baker, jailf>r, Shelby county, „ ,^, • /r ^ t^ c t ■ ,. >, \ia., in ilie " Montfjomery (Ala.) Ad- " Committed to lail, Ben— his left thumb off zi the hrst joint." V. rtiser," Oct. 5, 1838. Mr. S. N. Hitc, Camp street, New Or- " Twenty-five dollars reward for the negro slave Sally-walks loans, in the "Bee,'' Ftb. 19, 1S3*>. as though crippled in the back." b,S;-MHdi^^"cc^nt.^!^a^';i^ " Runaway, a negro man named Dick-has a little finger off " Huntsville Deinocra"t," Sept. 8, 1833. the right hand." I.fi^uL^'Nc;'S';t°Le' m'll' "Ranaway, the negro Patrick-has hishttlc finger of the right 1838. ' ' hand cut close to the nana." Mr. Needham Whitefield, Aberdeen, „ •r-r.-u n > ff j Dec. 5, 1837. . with a Icmfc" Mr. Samuel RagIand,Triana, Madison « Ranaway, Isham— has a scar upon the breast and upon the county, Alabama, in the " liuntsviUe j i- r- ,i /.•.-- 7 „ '^ ^ Advocate," Dec. 23, 1837. under lip, from the bite of a dog." iJ'^!'^'^^:^^^[^r^^^' . "Ranaway, a negro man-has .scar on his hip and on his July 5, 1838. breast, and two j rout teeth out." C. W. Wilkins, sheriff Baldwin Co, «i Committed to jail, a neorro man, he is crippled in the Ala. ill the " Mobile Advertiser," Sept. -;_],* i„„ » 2i;, 1837. "&'" '^s- Mr. J.imes H. Taylor, Charleston " Absconded, a colored boy, named Peter, lame in the right South Carolina, iu the " Courier," Au- 1 ., gust 7, 1837. "'^• N. M. 0. Piobinson, Jailer, Columbus, " Brought to jail, a negro man, his left ankle has been broke." Georgia, in the " Columbus (Ga.) En- quirer," August 2, 1838, Mr. Littlejohn Rvnes, Hinds Co, " Ranaway, a negro man named Jerry, has a small piece cyt Mi. in the " Natchez Courier," August, ^„^ ^j- ^/^^ ^^^ ^j g^^^J^ g^^,y 17, 1838. The Heirs of J. A. Alston, near Georgetown, South Carolina, in the " Absconded a ncffro named Cuffee, ha.s lost one finger ; hue •^ Georgetown [S.C] Union," June 1-, ^^ .^i^^g.a leg.- A. S. Ballinger, Sheriff, Johnston Co, " Committed to jail, a negro man ; has a very sore leg." North Carolina, in the " Raleigh Stand- ard," Oct. 18, 1838. Mr. 'PlioraasCrutchfield, Atkins, Ten. " Ranaway, my mulatto boy Cy, has but one hand, all the in the " Tennessee Journal," Oct. 17, fino-ers of his riffht hand were burnt off when young." 1838. 6 » 6 82 Punishments — Branding, Maiming, Scars. J. A. Brown, jailpr,Orans<>hutir, s.)uth " Was committed to jail, a nesrro named Bob, appears to be Carolina, in the " Charleston Mercury," _„■ „# j : ti • u* i ,; > ff 'iiiv ifi'iHrtH ■*' cr/wp/eti m the riffht 16!'." July 18, 1838 S. B. Turton, jailer, Adams C". Mis--? .. u XT u ^ . „ „ „, " Was committed to iail, a negro man, has liis left thiffk m the " Natchez Courier," Scut. 28, t i „ j ' b .'6 1828. 6rofre." " Mr. John TI Kins, High street, » Ranawav, mv nc?ro man, he has the end of one of his Gcoreelown, ui the " National Intelh- c_ „ t f ., ' peiicer," August 1, 1837. fingers broken." Mr. John B. Fox, Vicksburg, Miss. in the " Register," March 29, 1837. " Ranaway, a yellowish negro boy named Tom, has a notch in the back of one of his ears." '' Will be sold Martha, aged nineteen, has one eye out." Messrs. Fernandez and Whiting, auc- tioneers, New Orleans, in the •' Bee," April 8.1837. Mr. Marshall Jett, Farrowsyille Fan- " Ranaway, negro manEphraim, has a mark over one of his quier Co, V.rs.M.a, in the National , occasioned b v a blow.'' IntfcUigencer," May 30,183/. •' ' "^• " Was committed a negro, calls himself Jacob, has been crippled in his right leg." " Committed to jail, a negro man Gary, a large scar on his forehead.''^ E. W. Jlorris, sheriff of Warren " Committed as a runaway, a negro man .Tack he has several County, in the '• VicUsburg [Mi.] Regis- ^^ ^ns face." ter," March 28, 1838. P. B. Turlon, jailer Adams Co. Miss. in the " Natciios Courier," Oct. 12, 1838. John Ford, slieriff of Mobile County, i:i the " Mississippian," Jackson Mi. Pec. 28, 1836. Mr. John P. Holcomhe, in the Charles- ton Mercury," April 17, 1828. Mr. Willis Tatterson, in the " Charles- ton Mercury," December 11, 1837. Win. Magee, sheriff, Mobile Co. in the Mobile Register," Dec. 27, 1837. Mr. Henry M. McGregor, Prince George County, Maryland, in tlie "Alex- andria [I). C.]" Gazette," Feb. G, 1838. Green B Jourdnn, Baldwhi County Ga. in the " Georgia journal," April 18, tS37. Messrs. Daniel and Goodinan, New Orleans, in the " N. O. Bee," Feb. 2. ^f j^j^ cheeks. " Absented himself, his negro man Ben, has scars on hie throat, occasioned by the cut of a knife.'' " Ranaway, a negro man, John, a scar across his cheek, and one on his right arm, apparently done with a knife." "Committed to jail, a runaway slave, Alexander, a «rar on his left check." " Ranaway, negro Phil, .';car tnroitgh the right eye hrow, part of tlie middle toe on the right foot cut off." " Ranaway, John, has a sc«rr on one of his hands extending from the wrist joint to the little finger, also a scar on one of his legs." ' Absconded, mulatto slave Alick, has a large scar or>er one Jeremiah Woodward, Goochland, Co. 200 DOLLARS REWARD for Nelson, has a scar on his Va. in the " Richmond \ a. Whig," forehead occasioned by a fti/rn, and one on his lower lip and one ' ■ ' ' ' about the knee." " Ranaway, a negro man and his wife, named Nat and Samuel Rawlins, Gwiiiet Co. Ga. in PrisciJla, he has a small scar on his left cheek, two stiff fingers the " Columbus Sentinel," Nov. 29, i • • i t i j •*! ,u i- •(■"i ij^gg ' on his right hand witii a running sore on them ; his wife has a scar on her left arm, and one upper tooth out.'' The reader perceives that we have under this head, as under previous ones, given to the testi- mony of the slaveholders themselves, under their own names, a precedence over that of all other witnesses. We now ask the reader's attention to the testimonies which follow. They are en- dorsed by responsible names — men who ' speak what they know, and testify what they have j s(^en' — testimonies which show, that the slave- holders who wrote the preceding advertise- ments, describing the work of their own hands, j in branding with hot irons, maiming, mutilating, | cropping, shooting, knocking out the teeth and ftyes of their slaves, breaking their bones, &c., have manifested, as far as they have gone in the description, a commendable fidelity to truth. It is probable that some of the scars and maim- ings in the preceding advertisements were the result of accidents ; and some may be the result of violence inflicted by the slaves upon each other. Without arguing that point, we say, those are the facts ; whoever reads and ponders them, will need no argument to convince him, that the proposition which they have been employed to sustain, cannot he shaken. Tliat any considera- ble portion of them were accidental, is totally im- probable, from the nature of the case ; and is in most instances disproved by the advertisements Punishments — Mutilation of Teeth. 83 themselves. That they have not been produced by assaults of the slaves upon each other, is man- ifest from the fact, that injuries of that character inflicted by the slaves upon each other, are, as all who are familiar with the habits and condition of slaves well know, exceedingly rare ; and of necessity must be so, from the constant action upon them of the strono:cst dissuasives from such acts that can operate on human nature. Advertisements similar to the preceding may at any time be gathered by scores from the daily and weekly newspapers of the slave states. Be. fore presenting the reader with Curther testimony in proof of the proposition at the head of this part of our subject, we remark, that some of the tortures enumerated under this and the preceding heads, are not in all cases inflicted by slavehold- ers as punishnents, but sometimes merely as pre. ventives of escape, for the greater security of their 'propertj'.' Iron collars, chains, &.c. are put upon slaves when they are driven or trans- ported from one part of the country to another, in order to keep them from running away. Similar measures are aften resorted to upon plantations. When the master or owner suspects a slave of plotting an escape, an iron collar with long ' horns,' or a bar of iron, or a ball and chain, are often fastened upon him, for the double purpose of re- tarding his flight, should he attempt it, and of serving as an easy means of detection. Another inhuman method of mailcing slaves, so that they may be easily described and detected when they escape, is called cropping. In the preceding advertisements, the reader will per- ceive a number of cases, in which the runaway is described as ' cropt,'' or a ' notch cut in the ear, or a part or the whole of the ear cut off,' &,c. Two years and a half since, the writer of thi;> saw a letter, then just received by Mr. Lcwj.-i Tappan, of New York, containing a negro's ear cut off close to the head. The writer of the let. ter, who signed himself Thomas Aylethorpe, Montgomery, Alabama, sent it to Mr. Tappan as ' a specimen of a negro's ears,' and desired him to add it to his ' collection.' Another method oi marking slaves, is by draw- ing out or breaking off one or two front teeth — commonly the upper ones, as the mark would in that case be the more obvious. An instance of this kind the reader will recall in the testimony of Sarah M. Grimke, page 30, and of which she. had personal knowledge ; being well acquainted both with the inhuman master, (a distinguished citizen of South Carolina,) by whose order tho brutal deed was done, and with the poor young girl whose mouth was thus barbarously mutilated, to furnish a convenient mark by which to de- scribe her in case of her elopement, as she had frequently run away. The case stated by iVliss G. serves to unravel what, to one uninitiated, seems quite a mystery* : i. e. the frequency with vrhich, in the advertise- ments of runaway slaves published in southern papers, they are described as having one or two front teeth out. Scores of such advertisements are in southern papers now on our table. Wc i will furnish the reader with a dozen or two. WITNESSES. Jesse Debruhl, sherifT, Richland Dis- trict, " Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," Feb. 24, 1838. Mr. John Hunt, Blaclc Water Bay, " Pensacola (Ga.1 Gazette," October 14, 1837. Mr. John Frederick, Branchville, Oran^eburgh District, S. C. " Charleston [S. C'.] Courier," June 12, 1837. Mr. Egbert A. Raworth, eight miles west of Nashville on the Charlotte road, " Daily Republican Banner," Nashville, Tennessee, April 30, 1838. Benjamin Russel, Deputy sheriff, Bibb Co. Ga. " Macon ^Ga.) Telegraph," Dec. 25, 1837. F. Wistier, Master of the Work House, " Charleston (S. 0.) Courier.'" Oct. 17, 1837. Mr. S. Ncyle. " Savaimah (Ga.) Re- publican," July 3, 1837. Mr. John McMurrain, near Columbus, " Georgia Messenger," Aug. 2, 1838. Mr. John Kennedy, Stewart Co. La. " New Orleans Bee," April 7, 1837. Mr. A. J. Hatchings, near Florence, Ala. " North Alabamian," August 25, 1838. TESTIMONY. " Committed to jail, Ned, about 25 years of age, has lost his two upper front teeth." " 100 DOLLARS REWARD, for Perry, one under front tooth missing, aged 23 years." 10 DOLLARS REWARD, for Mary, one or two upper teeth out, about 25 years old." '' Ranaway, Myal, 23 years old, one of his fore teeth out.'" " Brought to jail John, 23 years old, one fore tooth out." " Committed to the Charleston Work House Tom, two of his upper front teeth out, about 30 years of age." " Ranaway Peter, has lost two front teeth in the upper jaw." " Ranaway, a boy named Moses, some of his front teeth out. " Ranaway, Sally, her fore teeth out." " Ranaway, George Winston, two of his upper fore teeth out immediately in front." ^4 Punishmenis — Mutilation of Teeth. Mr. James Purdan, 33 Coramon street, N. O. " New Orieaiia Bee," Feb. 13, 1838. Mr. Rob;'rt Ciilvfrt, in the '■ Arkan- SP.S State Gazetto," August 23, 1838, Mr. A. G. A- Beazlev, in the Mfm- pliis Gazette," March 18, 1338. " Ranaway, Jackson, has lost one of kis front teeth." " Ranaway, Jack, 25 years old, has lost one of fas fore teeth.'* "Ranaway, Abraham, 20 or 22 years of age, his front teeth Mr. SamuflTowiisend, in tjie" Hunts- viUe [Ala.J Utmocrat," May 24, 1837. " Ranaway, Dick, 18 or 20 years of age, has one front tooth out." Mr. Philip A. Dow, in the Her;Ud,"olMay24,1837. • Virginia « Ranaway, Washington, about 25 years of age, has an upper front tooth out." Mr. Jolm Frederick, in the " Charles- ton .McrcuiT," August 10, 1837. Jrsse Debnihl, sherifT of Richland JJiptriet, in the '• Cohimbia [S. C] "Telegraph," Sept. 2, 1837. M. F. W. Gilbert, in the " C'olmi-vbns tGa.] Enquirer," Oct. 5. 1837. .Publisher of the ' .■uiy," Aug. 31,1838. Charleaion Mer- Mr. Byrd M. Grace, in the " Macon [Ga.] Telegraph,"' Oct. 16, 1838. "50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Mary, 25 or 26 years old, one or two upper teeth out." " Committed to jail, Ned, 25 or 26 years old, has lost his two upper front teeth." " 50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Prince, 25 or 26 years old, one or two teeth out in front on the upper jaw," " Ranaway, Seller Saunders, one fore tooth out, about 22 years of age." " Ranaway, Warren, about 25 or 26 years old, has lost some of his front teeth." Mr. George W. Barnes, in the " Mil- " Ranaway, Henry, about 23 years old, has one of his upper IcrigcvilleLGa.] Journal," May 22, 1837. front teeth out." ^' ' ' ^ D. Hernne, Warden of Baltimore Jail, in " Baltimore Chronicle," Oct. G, 1937. Mr. J. L. ColboiTi, in the " Huntsville : Ala.] Democrat,'" July 4, 1837. Samuel Ilannan Jr. in the " New Orleans Bee," Oct. 12, 1838. " Committed to jail Elizabeth Steward, 17 or 18 years old, has one of her front teeth out." ji " Ranaway Liley, 26 years of age, one fore tooth gone." " 50 DOLLARS REWARD, for Adolphe, 28 years old, two of his front teeth are missing." Were it necessary, we might easily add to the preceding list, hundreds. The reader will remark that all the slaves, whose ages are given, are young — not one has arrived at middle age ; con- sequently it can hardly be supposed that they have lost their teeth either from age or decay. The probability that their teeth were taken out by force, is increased by the fact of their being/ront ^f-eth in almost every case, and from the fact that the loss of no otlicr is mentioned in the advertise- iiicnts. It is well known that the front teeth are "lot generally the first to fail. Further, it is noto- rious that the teeth of the slaves are remarkably sound and serviceable, that they dcca j^ far less, and at a much later period of life than the teeth of the wJiilca : owing partlj', no dotibt, to original con- slKution ; but more probably to their diet, habits, and mode of life. As an illustration of the horrible mutilations sometimes sufTered by them in the breaking and tearing out of their teeth, wc insert the following, from the New-Orleans Bee of May 31, 1837. ^10 REWARD.— Ranaway, Friday, May 12, Julia, a negress, eighteen or twenty years old. She has i.ost her upper teeth, and the under ones are all broken. Said reward will be paid to whoever will bring her to her master, No. 172 Barraeks-strect, or lodge her in the jail. The following is contained in the same paper. Ranaway, Nelson, 27 years old, — "All his TEETH ARE MISSING." This advertisement is signed by "Selfer," Faubourg Marign}'. We now call the attention of the reader to a mass of testimony in support of our general pro- position. George B. Ripley, Esq. of Norwich, Connec- ticut, has furnished the iollowing statement, in a letter dated Dee. 12, 1838. " GcRDON Chapman, Esq., a respectable mer- chant of our city, one of our county commission- ers, — last spring a member of our state legisla- ture, — and whose character for veracity is above suspicion, about a year since visited the county of Nanscmond, "Virginia, for the purpose of buying a cargo of corn. He purchased a large quantity of Mr. , vi'ith whose family he spent a week or ten days ; after he returned, he related to mc and several other citizens the following facts. Pumshmenls — Cruelties. 85 In order to prepare the corn for market by the time agreed upon, the slaves were worked as hard as they would bear, from daybreak until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. They were called diroctlj' from their bunks in the morning to their work, without a morsel of food until noon, when they took their breakfast and dinner, consisting of bacon and corn broad. The quantity of meat was not one tenth of what the same number of northern laborers usually liave at a meal. They were allowed but fifteen minutes to take this meal, at the expiration of this time the horn was blown. The rigor with which they enforce punctuality to its call, may be imagined t'rom the fact, that a little boy onl}' nine years old was whipped so severely by the driver, that in many places the whip cut through his clothes (which were of cotton,) for tardiness of not over three minutes. They then worked with- out intermission imtil 9 or 10 at night; after wliich they prepared and ate their second meal, as scant}^ as the first. An aged slave, who was remarkable for his industry and fidelity, was work- ing with all his might on the threshing floor ; amidst tlie clatter of the shelling and winnowing machines the master spoke to him, but he did not hear ; he presently gave him several severe cuts with tlie rav/ hide, saying, at the same time, 'damn you, if you cannot hoar I'll see if you can feel.' One morning the master rose from break- fast and whipped most crucli}', with a raw hide, a nice girl who was waiting on the table, for not opening a n'est window when he had told hor to oi)en an east one. The number of slaves was only forty, and yet the lash was in constant use. ,The bodies of all of them were literally covered with old scars. " Not one of the slaves attended church on the Sabbatli. The social relations were scarcely re- cognised among them, and they lived in a stale of promiscuous concubinage. The master said ho took pains to breed from his best stock — the whiter the progeny the higher they would sell for house servants. When asked by Mr. C. if he did not fear his slaves would rim away if he whipped them so much, he replied, they know too well what they must suffer if they are taken — and then said, ' I'll tell you how I treat my runaway nig. gcrs. I had a big nigger that ran away the second time ; as soon as I got track of him I took three good fellows and went in pursuit, and found him in the night, sonic miles distant, in a corn-house; we took him and ironed him hand and foot, and carted him home. The next morning we tied him to a tree, and whipped him until there was not a sound place on his back, I thcji tied his ankles and hoisted him up to a limb — feet up and head down — wo then whipped him, until the damned nigger smoked so that I thought he would take fire and burn up. We then took him dov.'n ; and to make sure that he should not run away the third time. I run my knife in back of the ankles, and cut off the large cords, — and tlien I ought to have put some lead into the wounds, but I for- got it.' " The truth of the above is from unquestionable authority ; and you may publish or suppress it, as shall best subserve the cause of God and hu- manity." Extract of a letter from Stephen Sewall, Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 18^9. Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational churcli in Winthrop, and late agent of the Winthrop Manufacturing company. " Being somewhat acquainted with slavery, by a residence of about five years in Alabama, and having witnessed many acts of slaveholding cru- elty, I will mention one or two tliat came under jny eye ; and one of excessive cruelty mcntioneti to mc at the time, by the gentleman (now dead, ) that interfered in behalf of the slave. " I was witness to such cruellies by an over- seer to a slave, that he twice attempted to drown himself, to get out of his power: this was on ;i raft of staves, in the Mobile river. I saw an owner take his runaway slave, tic a rope round him, then got on his horse, give the slave and liorsc a cut with the whip, and run the poor creature barefoot, ed, very fast, over rough ground, where small black jack oaks had been cut up, leaving the shar|» stumps, on which the slave would frequently fall : then the master would drag him as long as hr could himself hold out ; tlicn stop, and whip him up on his feet again — then proceed as before. This continued until he got out of my sight, which was about half a mile. But what further cruelties this wretched man, (whose passion was so excited that he could scarcely utter a word when he took the slave into his own power,) in- flicted upon his poor victim, tlic day of judgment will unfold. " I have seen slaves severely whipped on plant a . tions, but thus is an evert/ day occurrence, and comes under the head of general treatment. " I have known the case of a husband com- pelled to whip his wife. This I did not witness, though not two rods from the cabin at the time. " I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public vi'orks were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor crea- ture had no longer power to writhe under his suf- fering: he then took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At tliis moment, the gentleman referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his vic- tim, and exclaimed, ' If you touch that slave again you do it at the peril of your life." The slaveholder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave ; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend — whose sta- ture and physical powers were extraordinary." Extract of a letter from Mrs. Mary Cowles, a member of the Protestant Church at Geneva, Ashtabula county, Ohio, dated 12th, mo. 18th, 1838. Mrs. Cowles is a daughter of Mr. James Colwell of Brook county, Virginia, near West Liberty. " In the year 1809, I think, when I was twenty- one years old, a man in the vicinity where I resid- ed, in Brooke co. Va. near West Liberty, by the name of Morgan, had a little slave girl about six years old, who had a habit or rather a natural infir- mity common to children of that age. On this ac- comit her master and mistress would pinch her ears 86 Punishnients — Cruelties. \*'itli hot f ong-n, and throw hot embers on her legs. Net bcinfr able to accomplish their object by these means, tlicy at last resorted to a method too in- delicate, and too horrible to describe in detail. Suffice it to say, it soon put an end to her life in the most cxernciatinjr manner. If further testi- mony to authenticate what I have stated is ne- cessary, I refer you to Dr. Robert Mitchcl who then resided in the vicinity, but now lives at In- diana, Pennsylvania, above Pittsburgh." Mary Cowles. Testimony of Willfam Laud, Esq., now of Minot, Maine, formerly a slaveholder in Florida. Mr. Ladd is nov/ the President of the American Peace Society. In a letter dated November 29, 1838, Mr. Ladd says : " While I lived in Florida I knew a slaveholder whose name was Hutchinson, he had been a preacher and a member of the Senate of Georgia. He told mc that he dared not keep a gun in his house, because he was so passionate ; and that he had been the death of three or four men. I un- derstood him to mean slaves. One of his slaves, a girl, once came to my house. She had run away from him at Indian river. The cords of one of iier hands were so much contracted that her hand was useless. It was said that he had thrust her hand into the fire while he was in a fit of passion, and held it there, and this was the effect. My wife had hid the girl, when Hutchinson came for her. Out of compassion for the poor slave, I of- fered him more than she was worth, which here- fused. We afterward let the girl escape, and I do not knov/ what became of her, but I believe he never got her again. It was currently reported of Hutchinson, that he once knocked down a new negro (one recently from Africa) who was clearing up land, and who complained of the cold, as it was mid-vv'inter. The slave was stunned with the blow. Hutchinson, supposing he had the ' sulks,' applied fire to the side of the slave until it was so roasted that he said the slave was not worth curing, and ordered the other slaves to pile on brush, and he was consumed. " A min-der occurred at the settlement, (Mus. quite) while I lived there. An overseer from Gcor- jfia, who was employed by a Mr. Cormick, in a nt of jealousy shot a slave of Samuel Williams, the owner of the next plantation. He was ap- prehended, but afterward suffered to escape. This man told me that he had rather whip a ne- gro than sit down to the best dinner. This man had, near his house, a contrivance like that which is used in armies where soldiers are punished with the picket ; by this the slave was drawn up from the earth, by a cord passing round his wrists, so that his feet could just touch the ground. It somewhat resembled a New England well sweep, and was used when the slaves were flogged. " The treatment of slaves at Musquito I consi- der much milder than that which I have witness- ed in the United States. Florida was under the Spanish government while I lived there. There Were about fifteen or twenty plantations at Mus- quito. I have an indistinct recollection of four or five slaves dying of ihc cold in Amelia Island. They belonged to Mr. Runer of Musquito. The compensation of the overseers was a certain por- tion of the crop." Gerrit Smith, Esq. of Peterboro, in a letter, dated Dec. 1.5, 1838, cays : " I have just been conversing with an inhabi- tant of this town, on the subject of the cruelties of slavery. My neighbors inform mc that he is a man of veracity. Thj candid manner of his communication utterly forbade the suspicion that he was attempting to deceive me. " My informant says that he resided in Louis- iana and Alabama during a great part of the years 1819 and 1820 : — that he frequently saw slaves whipped, never saw any killed ; but often heard of their being killed : — that in several in- stances he had seen a slave receive, in the space of two hours, five hundred lashes — each stroke drawing blood. He adds that this severe whip- ping was always followed by the application of strong brine to the lacerated parts- " My informant further says, that in the spring of 1819, he steered a boat from Louisville to New Orleans. Whilst stopping at a plantation on the east bank of the Mississippi, between Natchez and New Orleans, for the purpose of making sale of some of the articles with which the boat was freighted, he and his fellow boatmen saw a shock- ingly cruel punishment inflicted on a couple of slaves for the repeated offence of running away. Straw v.-as spread over the whole of their backs, and, after buing fastened by a band of the same material, was ignited, and left to burn, until en- tirely consumed. The agonies and screams of the sufferers he can never forget." D« David Nelson, late president of Marion College, Missouri, a native of Tennessee, and till forty years old a slaveholder, said in an Anti- Slavery address at Northampton, Mass, Jan. 1839— " I have not attempted to harrow your feelings v^jith stories of cruelty. I will, however, mention one or two among the many incidents that came under my observation as family physician. I was one day dressing a blister, and the mistress of the house sent a little black girl into tlic kitchen to bring mo some warm water. She pi-obably mis- took her message ; for she returned with a bowl full of boiling water; which her mistress no sooner perceived, than she thrust her hand into it, and held it there till it was half cooked." Mr. Henry H. Loomis, a member of the Prcs. byterian Theological Seminary in the city of New York, says, in a recent letter — " The Rev. Mr. Hart, recently my pastor, ii Otsego county. New York, and who has spo^l some time at the south as a teacher, slated 1 > mc that in the neighborhood in which he reside .1 a slave was set to watch a turnip patch near an academy, in order to keep off the boys who occa- sionally trespassed on it. Attempting to repeat the trespass in presence of the slave, they were told that his ' master forbad it.' At this the boys were enraged, and hurled brickbats at the slave until his face and other parts were much injured and wounded — but nothing was said or done about it as an injury to the slave. " He also said, that a slave from the same ncisrh. borhood was found out in the vi'oods, witii his arms and legs burned almost to a cinder, up as "> . Punishments — Cruelties. 87 far as the clbcw avid knee joints; and there ap- jicared lo bo but httle more said or thought about it than if he liad been a brute. It was supposed that his master was the cause of it — making him an example of punishment to the rest of the gang !" The following is an extract of a letter dated March 5, 1839, from Mr. John Clarke, a highly respected citizen cf Scriba, Oswego county, New York, and a member of the Presbyterian church. The ' Mrs. Turner' spoken of in Mr. C.'s let- ter, is the wife of Hon. Fielding S. Turner, who in 1803 resided at Lexington, Kentucky, and was the attorney for the Commonwealth. Soon after that, he removed to New Orleans, and was for many years Judge of the Criminal Court of that city. Having amassed an immense fortune, he returned to Lexington a few years since, and still resides there. Mr. C. the writer, spent the winter of 1836-7 in Lexington. He says, " Yours of the 27th ult. is received, and I has- ten to state the facts which came to my know- ledge while in Lexington, respecting the occur- rences about which you inquire. Mrs. Turner was originally a Boston lady. She is from 35 to 40 years of age, and the wife of Judge Turner, formerly of New Orleans, and worth a large fortune in slaves and plantations. I repeatedly heard, while in Lexington, Kentucky, during the winter of 1836-7, of the wanton cruelty prac- tised by this woman upon her slaves, and that she had caused several to be whipped to death; but I never heard that she was suspected of being deranged, otherwise than by the indulgence of an ungoverncd temper, until I heard that her husband was attempting to incarcerate her in the Lunatic Asylum. The citizens of Lexing- ton, believing the charge to be a false one, rose and prevented the accomplishment for a time, until, lulled by the fair promises of his friends, they left his domicil, and in the dead of night she was taken by force, and conveyed to the asylum. This proceeding being judged illegal by her friends, a suit was instituted to liberate her. I heard the testimony on the trial, which related cnly to proceedings had in order to getting her admitted into the asylum ; and no facts came out relative to her treatment of her slaves, other than of a general character. " Some days after the above trial, (which by the way did not come to an ultimate decision, as I believe) I was present in my brother's office, when Judge Turner, in a long conversa- tion with my brother on the subject of his trials with his wife, said, ' That woman has been the immediate cause of the death of six of my ser- vants, by her srrerities.' " I was repeatedly told, while I was there, that she drove a colored boy from the second story window, a distance of 15 to 18 feet, on to the pavement, which made him a cripple for a time. " I heard the trial of a man for the murder of his slave, by whipping, where the evidence was to my mind perfectly conclusive of his guilt ; but the jury were two of them for convicting him of manslaughter, and the rest for acquitting him ; and as they could not agree v/ere discharged — and on a subsequent trial, as I learned by the papers, the culprit was acquitted." Rev. Thomas Savage, of Bedford, New Hamp- shire, in a recent letter, states the following fact : " The following circumstance was related to me last summer, by my brother, now residing as a physician, at Rodney, Mississippi ; and who, though a pro-slavery man, spoke of it in terms of reprobation, as an act of capricious, wanton cru- elty. The planter who was the actor in it I my- self knew ; and the whole transaction is so cha- racteristic of the man, that, independent of the strong authority I have, I should entertain but little doubt of its authenticity. He is a wealthy planter, residing near Natchez, eccentric, capri- cious and intemperate. On one occasion he in- vited a number of guests to an elegant enter- tainment, prepared in the true style of southern luxury. From some cause, none of the guests appeared. In a moody humor, and under the influence, probably, of mortified pride, he ordered the overseer to call the people (a term by whicli the field hands are generally designated,) on to the piazza. The order was obeyed, and the people came. ' Now,' said he, ' have them seat- ed at the table. Accordingly they were seated at the well-furnished, glittering table, while he and his overseer waited on them, and helped them to the various dainties of the feast. ' Now,' said he, after a while, raising his voice, ' take these ras- cals, and give them twenty lashes a piece. I'll show them how to eat at my table.' The over- seer, in relating it, said he had to comply, thougli reluctantly, with this brutal command." Mr. Henry P. Thompson, a native and still a resident of Nicholasville, Kentucky, made the following statement at a public meeting in Lane Seminary, Ohio, in 1833. He was at that time a slaveholder. " Cruelties, said he, are so common^ I hardly know what to relate. But one fact occurs to me just at this time, th.at happened in the village where I live. The circumstances are these. A colered man, a slave, ran away. As he was crossing Kentucky river, a white man, who sus- pected him, attempted to stop him. The negro resisted. The white man procured help, and finally succeeded in securing him. He then wreaked his vengeance on iiim for resisting — flogging him till he was not able to walk. They then put him on a horse, and came on with him ten miles to Nicholasville. When they entered the village, it was noticed that he sat upon his horse like a drunken man. It was a very hot day ; and whilst they were taking some refresh- ment, the negro sat down upon the ground, under the shade. When they ordered him to go, he made several efforts before he could get up; and when he attempted to mount the horse, his strength was entirely insufficient. One of the men struck him, and with an oath ordered him to get on the horse without any more fuss. The negro staggered back a few steps, fell down, and died. I do Cot know that any notice was ever taken of it." Rev. Coleman S. Hodgks, a native and still Punishments — Cruelties. a resident of Western Virginia, gave the follow- ing testimony at the same meeting. " I have frequently seen the mistress of a fam- ily in Virginia, wilii whom I was well aequaint- cd, beat the woman who performed the kitehen work, witii a stick two feet and a half long, and nearly as thick as my wrist ; striking her over the head, and across the small of the back, as she was bent over at her work, with as much spite as you would a snake, and for what I should consider no offence at all. There lived in this same family a young man, a slave, who was in the habit of running away. He returned one time after a week's absence. The master took him into the barn, stripped him entirely naked, tied him up by his hands so high that he could not reach the floor, tied his feet together, and put a small rail between his legs, so that he could not avoid the blows, and commenced whipping him. He told me that he gave him five hundred lashes. At any rate, he was covered with woimds from head to foot. Not a place as big as my hand but what was cut. Such things as these are per- fectly common all over Virginia ; at least so far as I am acquainted. Generally, planters avoid punishing their slaves before strangers." Mr. Calvin H. Tate, of Missouri, whose father and brother were slaveholders, related the fol- lowing at the eanic meeting. The plantation on v/hich it occurred, was in the immediate neigh- borhood of his father's. " A young woman, who was generally very badly treated, after receiving a more severe whi)}' ping than usual, ran away. In a few daj's she came back, and was sent into the field to work. At this time the garment next her skin was stiff like a scab, from the running of the sores made by the whipping. Towards night, she told her master that she was sick, and wished to go to the house. She went, and as soon as she reach- ed it. laid down on the floor exhausted. The mistress asked her what the matter was ? She made no reply. She asked again ; but received no answer. ' I'll sec, 'said she, ' if I can't make you speak.' So taking the tongs, she heated them red hot, and put tlicm upon the bottoms of her feet ; then upon her legs and body ; and, finally, in a rage, took hold of her throat This had the desired effect. The poor girl faintly whispered, • Oh, misse, don't — I am most gone ;' and expired." Extract of a letter from Rev. C. S. Renshaw, pastor of tlie Congregational Church, Quincy, Illinois. "Judge Mcnzies of Boone county, Kentucky, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a slave, holder, told me that lie knrw some overseers in the tobacco growing region of Virginia, who, to make their slaves careful in picking the tobacco, that is taking the worms off, (you know what a loathsome thing the tobacco worm is) would make them eat some of the worms, and othera who made them eat every worm they missed in l)icking." " Mrs. Nancy Judd, a member of the Non- Conformist Church in Osnaburg, Stark county, Ohio, and formerly a resident of Kentucky, testi- fies that she knew a slaveholder, " Mr. Brubeeker, who had a number of slaves, among whom was one who would frequently avoid labor by hiding himself; for which ho would get severe floggings without the desired ef- fect, and that at last Mr. B. would tie large cats on his naked body and whip them to make them tear his back, in order to break liim of his habit of hiding." Rev. Horace Moulton, a minister of the M> thodist Episcopal Church in Marlborough, Mas sachusetts, says : " Some, when other modes of punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them ; that is, take a cat by the nap of the neck and tail, or by its hind legs, and drag the claws across the back until satisfied ; this kind of punishment, as 1 have un- derstood, poisons the flesh much worse than the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave." Rev. AnEL Brown, Jr. late pastor of the first Baptist Church, Beaver, Pennsylvania, in a com- munication to Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, Editor of the Christian Reflector, says : " I almost daily see the poor heart-broken slave making his way to a land of freedom. A short time since, I saw a noble, pious, distressed, spirit- crushed slave, a member of the Baptist church, escaping from a (professed Christian) blood- hound, to a land vvliore he could enjoy that of which he had been robbed during forty years. His prayers would have made us all feel. I saw a Bapiist sister of about the same age, her chil- dren had been torn from her, her head was cover- ed with fresh Vv'ounds, while her upjjor lip ha-.l scarcely ceased to bleed, in consequence of a blow with the poker, which knocked out her tcetli : she too, was going to a land of freedom. Only a very icw days since, I saw a girl of about eigii- teen, with a child as white as myself, aged ten months ; a Christian master was raising her child (as well his own perhaps) to sell to a southern market. She had heard of the intention, and at midnight took her only treasure and traveled twenty miles on foot through a land of strangers — she found friends." Rev. Henry T. Hopkins, pastor of the Primi- tive Methodist Church in New York City, wiio resided in Virginia from 1821 to 1826, relates the following fact : "An old colored man, the slave of Mr. Emer- son, of Portsmouth, Virginia, being under deep conviction for sin, went into tjie back part of his master's garden to pour out his soul in prayer to God. For this offence he was whipped thirty- nine lashes." Extract of a letter from Doctor F. Julius Lk MoYNE, of Washington, Pennsylvania, dated Jan. 9, 1839. " Lest you should not have seen the state- ment to which I am going to allude, I subjoin a brief cutlin:^ of the facts of a transaction which occurred in Western Virginia, adjacent to tliis county, a number of years ago — a full account Punishments — -Wanton Cruellies. 89 of which was published in the " Witness" about two years since by Dr. Mitchell, who now resides in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. A slave boy ran away in cold weather, and during his con- cealment had his legs frozen ; he returned, or was retaken. After some time the flesh decayed and sloughed — of course was offensive — he was car- ried out to a field and left there without bed, or shelter, deserted to die. His only companions were the house dogs which he called to him. Af- ter several days and nights spent in suffering and exposure, he was visited by Drs. McKitchen and Mitchell in the field, of their own accord, having heard by report of his lauientablc condition; ihey remonstrated with the master ; brought the boy to the house, amputated both legs, and he finally recovered." Hon. James K. Paulding, the Secretary of the Navy of the U. States, in his " Letters from the South" published in 1817, relates the following : " At one of the taverns along the road we were set down in the same room with an elderly man and a youth who seemed to be well acquaint- ed with him, for they conversed familiarly and with true republican independence — for they did not mind who heard them. From the tenor of his conversation I was induced to look particu- larly at the elder. He was telling the youth something like the following detested tale. He was going, it seems, to Richmond, to inquire about a draft for seven thousand dollars, which he had sent by mail, but which, not having been ac- knowledged by his correspondent, he was afraid had been stolen, and the money received by the thief. ' I should not like to lose it,' said he, ' for I worked hard for it, and sold many a poor d 1 of a black to Carolina and Georgia, to scrape it together.' He then went on to tell many a perfidious tale. All along the road it seems he made it his business to inquire whcie lived a man who might be tempted to become a party in this accursed traffic, and when he had got some half dozen of these poor creatures, he tied their hands behind their backs, and drove them three or four hundred miles or more, bare- headed and half naked through the burning southern sun. Fearful that even southern huina- nity would revolt at such an exhibition of human misery and human barbarity, he gave out that they were runaway slaves he was carrying home to their masters. On one occasion a poor black woman exposed this fallacy, and told the story of her being kidnapped, and when he got her into a wood out of hearing, he beat her, to use liis own expression, ' till her back was white.' It seems he married all the men and women he bought, himself, because they would sell better for boing man and wife ! But, said the youth, were you not afraid, in traveling tiirough the wild country and sleeping in lone houses, these slaves would rise and kill you ? ' To be sure I was,' said the other, ' but I always fastened my door, put a chair on a table before it, so that it might wake mc in falling, and slept with a loaded pistol in each hand. It was a bad life, and I left it off as soon as I could live without it ; for many is the time I have separated wives from husbands, and husbands from wives, and parents from children, Out then I made them amends by marryin«r ♦'^em again as soon as I had a chance, that is to say, I made them call each other man and wife, and sleep together, which is quite enougli for negroes. I made one bad purchase though,' continued he. ' I bought a yoimg mulatto girl, a lively creature, a great bargain. She had been the favorite of her master, who had lately married. The dif- ficulty was to get her to go, for the poor creature loved her master. However, I swore most bit- terly I was only going to take her to her mother's at and she went with me, though she seemed to doubt me very much. But when she discovered, at last, that we were out of the state, I thought she would go mad, and in fact, the next night she drowned herself in the river close by. I lost a good five hundred dollars by this foolish trick.' " Vol. I. p. 121. Mr. Spillman, a native, and till recently. a resident of Virginia, now a member of the Pres. byterian church in Delhi, Hamilton co., Ohio, has furnished the two following facts, of which he had personal knowledge. '' David Stallard, of Shenandoah co., Virginia, had a slave, who run away; he was taken up and lodged in Woodstock jail. Stallard went with an- other man and too^v him out of the jail — tied him to their horses — and started for home. Tlie day was excessively hot, and they rode so fast, drag- ging the man by the rope behind them, that he became perfectly exhausted — fainted — dropped down, and died. "Henry Jones, of Culpepper co., Virginia, owned a slave, who ran away. Jones caught him, tied him up, and for two days, at intervals, continued to flog him, and rub salt into his mnn- gled flesh, until his back was literally cut up. The slave sunk under the torture ; and for some days it was supposed he must die. He, however, slow- ly recovered ; though it was some weeks before he could walk." Mr. Nathan Cole, of St. Louis, Missouri, in a letter to Mr. Arthur Tappan, of New-York, dated July 2, 1834, says,— " You will find inclosed an account of the pro- ceedings of an inquest lately held in this city upon the body of a slave, the details of which, if pub- lished, not one in ten could be induced to believe true.* It appears that the master or mistress, or both, suspected the unfortunate wretch of hiding a bunch of keys vi'hich were missing ; and to ex- tort some explanation, which, it is more than pro- bable, the slave was as unable to do as her mis- tress, or any other person, her master. Major Har- ney, an officer of our army, had whipped her for three successive days, and it is supposed by some, that she was kept tied during the time, until her flesh was so lacerated and torn that it was impos- sible for the jury to say whether it had been done with a whip or hot iron ; some think both — but she was tortured to death. It appears also that the husband of the said slave had become suspected of telhng some neighbor of what was going on, for * The foUowinR is the newspaper notice referred to : — An inquest was held at llie dwcllinc; lioiise of Slajor Har- ney, in tliis city, on the 27th inst. by the coroner, on the boily of Hannah, a slave. The jury, on their oaths, and after hearing the testimony of physicians and several othor witnesses, found, that said slave " came to her death by .- - ■~Ag iiifiicted bv ■William S. Harney." 00 Punishments — W anton Cruelties. which Major Harncj commenced torturingf him, nntil the man broke I'roiii liim, and ran into the Mississippi ami drowned himself. The man was a pious and very industrious slave, perliaps not surpassed by any in this place. The woman has been in the family of John Shackford, Esq., the I)resent doorkeeper of the Senate of the United States, for many years ; was considered an excel- lent servant — was the mother of a number of children — and I believe was sold into the family where she met her fate, as matter of conscience, to keep her from being sent below." Mr. EzEKiEL BniDSEVE, a highly respected citi. zen of Cornwall, Litchfield co., Connecticut, who resided for many years at the south, furnished to the Rev. E. R. Tyler, editor of the Connecticut Observer, the following personal testimony. " While I lived in Limestone co., Alabama, in 1826-7, a tavern-keeper of the village of Mores- vilic discovered a negro carrying away a piece of old carpet. It was during the Christmas holidays, when the slaves are allowed to visit their friends. The negro stated that one of the servants of the tavern owed him some twelve and a half or twenty-five cents, and that he had taken the car- pet inpayment. This the serva:;! dtmied. The innkeeper took the negro *.-> i field near by, and whipped him cruelly, lii: ihen struck him with a slake, and punched him in the face and moulh, knocking out some of his teeth. After this, he took him back to the house, and com- )nitted him to the care of his son, wlio had just then come home with another young man. This was at evening. They whipped him by turns, with heavy cowskins, and made the do(rs shnhe him. A JVIr. Phillips, who lodged at the house, heard the cruelty during the night. On getting up he found the negro in the bar-room, terribly mangled with the whip, and his flesh so torn by the dogs, that the cords were bare. He remarked to the landlord that he was dangerously hurt, and needed care. The landlord replied that he deserved none. Mr. Phillips went to a neigh- boring magistrate, who took the slave home with hiiTi, where he soon died. The father and son were both tried, and acquitted I ! A suit was brought, however, for damages in behalf of the owner of the slave, a yoimg lady by the name of Agnes Jones. / was on thd jury when these fuels loere ataicd on oath. Two men testified, one that ho woul 1 have given ,^1000 for him, the other ,*$900 or .'^9.'j0. Tlic jury found the latter sum. " At Union Court House, S. C, a tavern-keep- er, by the name of Samuel Davis, procured the conviction and execution of his own slave, for stealing a cake of gingerbread from a grog shop. The slave raised the latch of the back door, and took the cake, doing no other injury. The shop keeper, whose name was Charles Gordon, was willing to foi-give him, but his master procured his rxmviction and execution by lianging. The slave liad but one arm ; and an order on the state trea- sury by the court that tried him, which also as- sessed his value, brouglit him more money than he could have obtained for the slave in market." Mr. , an elder of the Presbyterian Church in one of the slave states, lately wrote a letter to an agent of the Anti-Slavery Society, in which he states the following fact. The name of the writer is with the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society. " I was passing through a piece of timbered land, and on a sudden I heard a sound as of murder ; I rode in that direction, and at some distance dis- covered a naked black man, hung to the limb of a tree by his hands, his feet chained together, and a pine rail laid with one end on the chain between his legs, and the other upon the ground, to steady him ; and in this condition the overseer gave him four hundred lashes. The miserably lacerated slave was then taken down, and put to the care of a physician. And what do you suppose was the offence for which all this was done ? Simply this: his owner, observing that he laid off corn rows too crooked, he replied, ' Massa, much corn grow on crooked row as f)n straight one.' This was it — this was enough. His overseer, boasting of his skill in managing a nigger, he was subniitted to him, and treated as above." David L. Child, Esq., of Northampton, Massa- chusetts, Secretary of the United States minister at the Court of Lisbon during the administration of President Monroe, stated the following fact in an oration delivered by him in Boston, in 1834. (See Child's " Despotism of Freedom," p. 30. " An honorable friend, who stands high in tlie state and in the nation,* was present at the burial of a female slave in Mississippi, who had been whipped to death at the stake by her master, be. cause she was gone longer of an errand to the neighboring town than her master thought neces- sary. Under the lash she protested that she was ill, and was obliged to rest in the fields. To com- plete the climax of horror, she was delivered of a dead infant while undergoing the punishment."' The same fact is stated by Mrs. Child in licr " Appeal." In answer to a recent letter, inquir- ing of Mr. and Mrs. Child if they were now at libertv to disclose the name of their informant, Mr. C. says, — '' The witness who staled to us tlie fact was John James Appleton, Esq., of Cambridge, Mas-.'. He is now in Europe, and it is not without some hesitation that I give his name. He, however, has openly embraced our cause, and taken a con- spicuous jjart in some an1i-slavery public meet, ings since the time that I felt a scnijile at publish, ing his name. Mr. Appleton is a gentleman of high talents and accoinjilishments. He has been Secretary of Legation at Rio Janeiro, Madrid. and the Hague ; Commissioner at Naples, and Charge d'AfFaires at Stockholm." The two following facts are stated upon the authority of the Rev. Joseph G. Wilsox, pastor of ^ the Presbyterian Church in Salem, Washington CO., Indiana. " In Bath co., Kentucky, Mr. L., in the year '32 or '33, while intoxicated, in a fit of rage whip- ped a female slave until she fainted and fell oil the floor. Then he whipped her to get up; then * " Tlip narrator of this fact is no-' .ibsmt from tlifi United States, and I do not feel at liberty l;. mention \.U nxce." Punishments — Cruelties. 91 with red hot ton^s he burned off her ears, and whipped her again ! but all in vain. He then or- dered his negro men to carry her to the cabin. 'I'iiere she was found dead next morning-. " One Wall, in Chester district, S. C, owned a slave, whom he hired to his brother-in-law, VVm. licckraan, for whom the slave worked eifrhteen months, and worked well. Two weeks after re- turning to his master he ran away on account of had treatment. To induce him to return, the master sold him nominally to his neighbor, to wliom the slave gave himself up, and by whom lie was returned to his master : — Punishment, giripes. To prevent escape a bar of iron was fast, cnod witli three bands, at the waist, knee, and ajikle. Tiiat niglit he broke tiie bands and bar, and escaped. Next day he was taken and whipped to death, by three men, the master. Thorn, and the overseer. First, he was whipped and driven towards home ; on the way he attempt- ed to escape, and was shot at by the master, — caught, and knocked down with the butt of the gun by 'i'horn. In attempting to cross a ditch he fell, with his feet down, and face on the bank ; they whipped in vain to get him up — he died. His soul ascended to God, to be a swift witness against his oppressors. This took place at 12 o'clock. Next evening an inquest was held. Of thirteen jurors, summoned by the coroner, nine said it was murder; two said it was manslaughter, and two said it was justifiable I He was bound over to court, tried, and acquitted — not even fined I" The following fact is stated on the authority of M r. Wji. Willis, of Green Plains, Clark co. Ohio ; formerly of Caroline co. on the eastern shore of Maryland. " Mr. W. knew a slave called Peter White, who was sold to be taken to Georgia ; he escaped, and lived a long time in the woods — was finally taken. When he found himself surrounded, he surren- dered himself quietly. When his pursuers had him in their possession, they shot him in the leg, and broke it, out of mere wantonness. The next day a Methodist minister set his leg, and bound it up with splints. The man who took him, then went into his place of confinement, wantonly jumped upon his leg and crushed it. His name was William Sparks." Most of our readers are familiar with the hor. rible atrocities perpetrated in New Orleans, in 1834, by a certain Madame La Laurie, upon her slaves. They were publislied extensively in north- em newspapers at the time. The following are ex- tracts from the accounts as published in the New Orleans papers immediately after the occurrence. The New Orleans Bee says : — " Upon entering one of the apartments, the most appalling spectacle met their eyes. Seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated, were seen sus- pended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn, from one extremity to the other. They had been confined for several months in the situation from which they had thus provi- dentially been rescued ; and had been merely kept in existence to prolong their sufferings, and to make them taste all that a most refined cruelty could infliot " The New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says ; " A negro woman was found chained, covered with bruises and wounds from severe flogging. — All the apartments were then forced open. In a room on the ground floor, two more were found chained, and in a deplorable condition. Up stairs and in the garret, four more were found chained ; some so weak as to be unable to walk, and all co- vered with wounds and sores. One mulatto boy declares himself to have been chained for five months, being fed daily with only a handful of meal, and receiving every morning the most cruel treatment." The New Orleans Courier says : — " We saw one of these miserable beings. — He had a large hole in his head — his body, from head to foot, was covered with scars and filled with worms." The New Orleans Mercantile Advertiser says : " Seven poor unfortunate slaves were found — some chained to the floor, others \\\i\\ chains around their necks, fastened to the ceiling ; and one poor old man, upwards of sixty years of age, chained hand and foot, and made fast to the floor, in a kneeling position. His head bore the ajipear- ancc of having been beaten until it was broken, and the worms were actually to be seen making a feast of his brains ! ! A woman had her back literally cooked (if the expression may be u«;<;d> with the lash ; the very hones might he seen pro- jecting through the skin .'" The New York Sun, of Feb. 21, 1837, contains the following : — " Two negroes, runaways from Virginia, were overtaken a few days since near Johnstown, Co- lumbia CO. N. Y. when the persons in pursuit called out for them to stop or they would shoot them. — One of the negroes turned around and said, "he would die before he would be taken, and at the moment received a rifle ball through his knee : the other started to run, but was brought to the ground by a ball being shot in his back. After receiving the above wounds they made battle with their pursuers, but were captured and brought in- to Johnstown. It is said that the young men who shot them had orders to take them dead or alive." Mr, M. M. Shafter, of Townsend, Vermont, recently a graduate of the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, makes the following statement : " Some of the events of the Southampton, Va. insurrection were narrated to me by Mr. Benja- min W. Britt, from Riddicksville. N. C. Mr, Britt claimed the honor of having shot a black on that occasion, for the crime of disobeying Mr, Britt's imperative ' Stop !' And Mr. Ashurst, of Edcnton, Georgia, told me that a neighbor of hie ' fired at a likely negro boy of his mother,' because the said boy encroached upon his premises." Mr. David Hawley, a class leader in the Me- thodist Episcopal Church at St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio, who moved from Kentucky to Ohio in 1831, certifies as follows: — " About the year 1825, a slave had escaped for 92 Punishments — Cruelties. Canada, but was arrested in Hardin county. On his return, I saw liini in Hart county — liis wrists tied together before, his arms tied close to his body, tlic rope then passinor behind liis body, thence to the neck of a horse on which rode the master, witli a club about three feet long, and of the size of a hoe handle ; which, by the appearance of the slave, had been used on his head, so as to wear off the hair and skin in several places, and the blood was runnin.nf freely from his mouth and nusc ; his heels very much bruised by the horse's feet, as his mastiT had rode on him because he would not go fast enough. Snch was the slave's appearance when passing through where I resided. Such cases were not unfrcquent." The following is furnished by Mr. F. A. Hart, of Middletown, Connecticut, a manufacturer, and an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It occurred in 1824, about twenty-five miles this side of Baltimore, Maryland, — " I had spent the night with a Methodist bro- ther ; and while at breakfast, a person came in and called for help. We went out and found a crowd collected around a carriage. Upon ap. proaching wc discovered that a slave-trader was endeavoring to force a woman into his carriage. He had already put in three children, the young- est apparently about eight years of age. The wo- man was strong, and whenever he brought her to the side of the carriage, she resisted so effectually with her feet that he could not get her in. The woman becoming exhausted, at length, b}- her frantic efforts, he thrust her in with great violence, stamped her doipn upon the bottom with hisjeet.' shouted to the diivcr to goon; and away they rolled, the miserable captives moaning and shriek. ing, until their voices were lost in the distance." Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col- lege, Ohio, writes as follows : — " Mr. Isaac C. Fuller is a member of the Me- thodist Episcopal Cliurch in Marietta. He was a fellow student of mine while in college, and now resides in this place. He says: — In 1832, as I was descending the Ohio with a flat boat, near the ' French Islands,' so called, below Cincinnati, I saw two negroes on horseback. The horses ap- parently took fright at something and ran. Both jumped over a rail fence ; and one of the horses, in 60 doing, broke one of his fore-legs, falling at the same time and throwing the negro who was upon his back. A white man came out of a house not over two hundred yards distant, and came to the spot. Seizing a stake from the fence, he knocked the negro down five or six times in suc- cession. •' In the same year I worked for a Mr. Now- land, eleven miles above Baton Rouge, La. at a place called ' Thomas' Bend.' He had an over- seer who was accustomed to flog more or less of the slaves every morning. I heard the blows and screams as regularly as we used to hear the col- lege bell that summoned us to any dut}' when we went to school. This overseer was a nephew of Nowland, and there were about fifty slaves on bis plantation. Nowland himself related the following to me. One of his slaves ran away, jiad came to the Homo Chitto river, where he found no means of crossing. Here he fell in with a white man who knew his master, being on a journey from that vicinitj'. He induced the slave to return to Baton Rouge, under the promise of giving him a pass, by which he might escape, but, in reality, to betray him to his master. This he did, instead of fulfilling his promise. Nov.'land said that he took the slave and inflicted five hundred lashes upon him, cutting his back all to pieces, and then threw on hot embers. The slave vias on the plantation at the time, and told jnc the same story. He also rolled up his sleeves, and showed me the scars on his arms, which, in con- sequence, appeared in places to be callous to the bone. I was with Nowland between five and si.x months." Rev. JoH.\ Rankin, formerly of Tennessee, now pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Ripley, Ohio, has furnished the following statement : — " The Rev. Ludwell G. Gaines, now pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Goshen, Clermont county, Ohio, stated to mc, that while a resident of a slave state, he was summoned to assist in taking a man who had made his black woman work naked several days, and afterwards mur- dered her. The murderer armed himself, and threatened to shoot tlie officer who went to take him ; and although there was ample assistance at hand, the off^lcer declined further interference." Mr. Rankin adds the following : — " A Presbyterian preacher, now resident in a slave state, and therefore it is not expedient to give his name, stated, that he saw on board of a steamboat at Louisville, Kentucky, a woman who had been forced on board, to be carried off from all she counted dear on earth. She ran across the boat and threw herself into the river, in order to end a life of intolerable sorrows. She was drawn back to the boat and taken up. The bru- tal driver beat her severely, and she iinmediatel}- threw herself again into the river. She was hook- ed up again, chained, and carried off." Testimony of Mr. William Hansbokough, of Culpepper county, Virgkinia, the '' owner" of sixty slaves. " I saw a slave taken out of prison by his mas- ter, on a hot summer's day, and driven, by said master, on the road before him, till he dropped down dead." The above statement was made by Mr. Hans- borough to Lindley Coates, of Lancaster countj% Pa. a distinguished member of the Society of Friends, and a member of the late Convention in Pa. for altering the State Constitution. The let- ter from Mr. C. containing this testimony of Mr. H. is now before us. Mr. Tobias Boudinot, a member of the Method. ist Church in St. Albans, Licking county, Ohio, says : "In Nicholasvillc, Ky. in the year 1823, he saw a slave fleeing before the patrol, but he vi as overtaken near where he stood, and a man with a knotted cane, as large as his wrist, struck the slave a number of times on his head, until the Punishments — Brandings. 93 club was broken and he made tame ; the blood was thrown in every direction by the violence of the blows." The Rev. William Dickey, of Bloomingburg, Fayette county, Ohio, wrote a letter to the Rev. John Rankin, of Ripley, Ohio, thirteen years since, containing a description of the cutting up of a slave with a broad axe ; beginning at the feet and gradually cutting the legs, arms, and body into pieces 1 This diabolical atrocity was com- mitted in the state of Kentucky, in the year 1807. The perpetrators of the deed were two brothers, Lilburn and Isham Lewis, nephews of President Jefferson. The writer of this having been in. formed by Mr. Dickey, that some of the facts con- nected with this murder were not contained in his letter published by Mr. Rankin, requested him to \vrite the account anew, and furnish the addi- tional facts. This he did, and the letter contain, ing it was published in the " Human Rights" for August, 1837. We insert it here, slightly abridg- ed, with the introductory remarks which appeared in that paper. " Mr. Dickey's first letter has been scattered all over tiie country, south and north ; and though multitudes have affected to disbelieve its state- ments, Kentuckiaas know the truth of them quite too well to call them in question. The story is fiction or fact — U fiction, why has it not been nail- ed to the wall ? Hundreds of people around the mouth of Cumberland River are personally know- ing to these facts. There are the records of the court that tried the wretches. — There their ac- quaintances and kindred still live. All over that region of country, the brutal butchery of George is a matt.';r of public notoriety. It is quite need- less, perhaps, to add, that the Rev. Wm. Dickey is a Presbyterian clergyman, one of the oldest members oi' the Chiheothe Presbytery, and greatly respected and beloved by the churches in South, cm Ohio. He was born in South Carolina, and was for many years pastor of a church in Ken- tucky'. REV. WM. dickey's LETTER. " In the county of Livingston, Ky. near the mouth of Cumberland River, lived Lilburn Lewis, a sister's son of the celebrated Jefferson. He was the wealthy owner of a considerable gang of ne- groes, whom he drove constantly, fed sparinglv, and lashed severely. The consequence was, that they would run away. Among the rest was an ill-thrived boy of about seventeen, who, havinar just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to the spring for water, and in returning let fall an elegant pitcher : it was dashed to shivers upon the rocks. This was made the occasion for reck- oning with him. It was night, and the slaves were all at home. The master had them all col- lected in the most roomy negro-house, and a rous- ing fire put on. When the door was secured, that none might escape, either through /eor of him or sympathy with George, he opened to them the de- sign of the interview, namely, that they might be effectually advised to stay at home and obey his orders. All things now in train, he called up George, who approached his master with unre- served submission. He bound him with cords ; and by the assistance of Isham Lewis, his young- est brother, laid him on a broad bench, the meat, block. He then proceeded to hack off George at the ankles .' It was with the broad axe .' In vain did the unhappy victim scream and roar .' for he was completely in his master's power ; not a hand among so many durst interfere : casting the feet into the fire, he lectured them at some length. — He next chopped him off below the knees.' George roaring out and praying his master to begin at the other end .' He admonished them again, throw- ing the legs into the fire — then, above the knees, tossing the joints into the fire — the next stroke severed the thighs from the body ; these were also committed to the flames — and so it may be said of the arms, head, and trunk, until all was in the fire ! He threatened any of them with similar punishment who should in future disobey, run awaj', or disclose the proceedings of that evening. Nothing now remained but to consume the flesh and bones ; and for this purpose the fire was brightly stirred until- two hours after midnight ; when a coarse and heavy back-wall, composed of rock and clay, covered the fire and the remains of George. It was the Sabbath — this put an end to the amusements of the evening. The negroes were now permitted to disperse, with charges to keep this matter among themselves, and never to whisper it in the neighborhood, under the penalty of a like punishment. " When he returned home and retired, hiS wife exclaimed, 'Why, Mr. Lewis, where have you been, and what were you doing ?' She had heard a strange pounding and dreadful screams, and had smcllcd something like fresh meat burning. The answer he returned was, that he had never enjoy- ed himself at a ball so well as he had enjoyed him- self that night. " Next morning he ordered the hands to rebuild the back-wall, and he himself superintended the work, throwing the pieces of flesh that still re- mained, with the bones, behind, as it went up — thus hoping to conceal the matter. But it could not be hid — much as the negroes seemed to haz- ard, they did whisper the horrid deed. The neigh- bors came, and in his presence tore down the wall ; and finding the remains of the boy, they appre- hended Lewis and his brother, and testified agkinst them. They were committed to jail, that they might answer at the coming court for this shock- ing outrage ; but finding security for their appear- ance at court, THEV were admitted to bail ! " In the interim, other articles of evidence leak- ed out. That of Mrs. Lewis hearing a pounding, and screaming, and her sinelhng fresh meat burn- ing, for not till now had this come out. He was offended with her for disclosing these things, al- leging that they might have some weight against him at the pending trial. " In connection with this is another item, full of horror. Mrs. Lewis, or her girl, in making her bed one morning after this, found, under her bol. ster, a keen butcher knife ! The appalling disco- very forced from her the confession that she con- sidered her life in jeopardy. Messrs. Rice and Philips, whose wives were her sisters, went to see her and to bring her away if she wished it. Mr. Lewis received them with all the expressions of 94 Personal Naraatives — Rev. Francis Hawley. Virginia hospitality. As soon as they were seat- ed they said, ' Well, Letitia, we supposed that you might be unhappy here, and afraid for your hfe ; and we have come to-day to take you to your fa. ther's, it' you desire it.' She said, ' Thank you, kind brothers, I am indeed afraid for my life.' — We need not interrupt the story to tell how much surprised he affected to be with this strange procedure of his brothers-in-law, and with this declaration of his wife. But all his professions of fondness for her, to the contrary notwith- standing, they rode off with her before his eyes. — He followed and overtook, and went with them to her father's ; but she was locked up from him, with her own consent, and he returned home. " Now he saw that his character was gone, his respectable friends believed that he had massacred George ; but, worst of all, he saw that they con- sidered the life of the harmless Letitia was in dan- ger from his perfidious hands. It was too much tor his chivalry to sustain. The proud Virginian sunk under the accumulated load of public odium. He proposed to his brother Isham, who had been his accomplice in the George afi'air, that they aliould finish the play of life with a still deeper tragedy. The plan was, that they should shoot one another. Having made the hot-brained bar- gain, they repaired vi'ith their guns to the grave- yard, whicli was on an eminence in the midst of hi§ plantation. It was inclosed with a railing, Bay thirty feet square. One was to stand at one railing, and the otiier over against him at the other. They were to make ready, take aim, and count deliberately 1, 2, 3, and then fire. Lilburn's will was written, and thrown down open beside him. They cocked their guns and raised them to their faces ; but the peradventure occurring that one of the guns might miss fire, Isham was sent for a rod, and when it was brought, Lilburn cut it off at about the length of two feet, and was ] showing his brother how the survivor might do, ' provided one of the guns should fail ; (for they were determined upon going together;) but for- getting, perhaps, in the perturbation of the mo- ment that the gun was cocked, when he touched the trigger with the rod the gun fired, and he fell, and died in a few minutes — and was with George in the eternal world, where the slave is free froiti his viaster. But poor Isham was so terrified with this unexpected occurrence and so confounded by the awful contortions of his brother's face, that he had not nerve enough to follow up the play, and finish the plan as was intended, but suffered Lilburn to go alone. The negroes came running to see what it meant that a gun should be fired in the graveyard. There lay their master, dead I They ran for the neighbors. Isham still remain- ed on the spot. The neighbors at the first charged him with the mm-der of hi.s brother. But he, though as if he had lost more than half his mind, told the whole story; and the course or range of the ball in the dead man's bodj' agreeing with his statement, Isham was not farther charged with . Lilburn's death. "TheCourt sat — Isham wasjudged to be guilty of a capital crime in the affair of George He was to bo hanged at Salem. The day was set. My good old father visited him in the prison — two or three times talked and prayed with him ; I visited him once myself. We fondly hoped that he was a sincere penitent. Before the day of execution came, by some means, I never knew what, Isham was missing. About two years after, we learned that he had gone down to Natchez, and had mar- ried a lady of some refinement and piety. I saw her letters to his sisters, who were worthy mem- bers of the church of which I was pastor. The last letter told of his death. He was in Jackson's army, and fell in the famous battle of New Or leans. " I am, sir, your friend, "Wm. DicKEy." PERSONAL NARRATIVES-PART III. NARRATIVE AND TESTIMONY OF REV. FRANCIS HAWLEY. Mr. Hawley is the pastor of the Baptist Church in Colebrook, Litchfield county, Connecticut. He has resided fourteen years in the slave states, North and South Carolina. His character and standing with his own denomination at the south, may be inferred from the fact, that the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina ap- pointed him, a few years since, their general agent to visit the Baptist churches within their bounds, and to secure their co-operation in the ob- jects of the Convention. Mr. H. accepted the appointment, and for some time traveled in that capacity. " I r(!Joice that the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society have resolved to publish a volume of facts and testimony rela- tive to the character and workings of American slavery. Having resided fourteen years at the ' south, I cheerfully comply with your request, to give the result of my observation and experience. And I would here remark, that one may reside at the south for years, and not witness extreme cruelties ; a northern man, and one who is not a slaveholder, would be the last to have an oppor- tunity of witnessing the infliction of cruel pun- ishments. PLANTATIONS. "A majority of the large plantations are on the banks of rivers, far from the public eye. A great deal of low marshy ground lies in the vicinity of most of the rivers at the south ; consequently the main roads are several miles from the rivers, and generally no public road passes the plantations. A stranger traveling on the ridge, would think himself in a miserably poor country ; but every two or three miles he will sec a road turning off, and leading into the swamp ; taking one of those roads, and travelmg from two to six miles, he will come to a large gate ; passing which, he will find himself in a clearing of several hundred acres of the first quality of land ; passing on, he wiU see 30, or Personal Narratives — Rev. Francis Hawley. 95 40, cr more slaves — men, women, boys and girk, at tlieir task, cve-ry one with a hoe ; or, if in cot- ton picking season, with their baskets. The overseer, \vith his whip, either riding or standing about among them ; or if tlie weather is hot, sit- ting under a shade. At a distance, on a httle rising ground, if such there be, he will see a clus- ter of liuts, with a tolerable house in the midst, for the overseer. Those huts are from ten to fifteen feet square, built of logs, and covered, not with shingles, but with boards, about four feet long, split out of pine timber with a \frow.' The floors are very commonly made in this way. Clay is first worked until it is soft ; it is then spread upon the ground, about four or five inches thick ; when it dries, it becomes nearly as hard as a brick The crevices between the logs are Homctimcs filled with the same. These huts generally cost the master nothing — they are com- monly built by the negroes at night, and on Sun- days, , When a slave of a neighboring plantation takes a wife, or to use the phrase common at the south, 'takes up' with one of the women, he builds a hut, and it is called her house. Upon entering these huts, (not as comfortable in many in.stances as the horse stable,) generally, you will find no chairs, but benches and stools ; no table, no bedstead, and no bed, except a blanket or two, and a few rags or moss ; in some in- stances a knife or two, but very rarely a fork. You may also find a pot or skillet, and generally a number of gourds, which serve them instead of bowls and plates. The cruelties practiced on those secluded plantations, the judgment day alone caii reveal. Ob, brother, could I summon ten slaves from ten plantations that I could name, and have them give but one year's historj- of their bondage, it would thrill the land with hor- ror. Those overseers who follow the business of overseeing for a livelihood, are generally the most unprincipled and abandoned of men. Their wages are regulated according to their skill in extorting labor. The one who can make the most bags of cotton, with a given number of hands, is the one generally sought after ; and there Is a competition among them to see who s^hall make the largest crop, according to the hands he works. I ask, what must be the con- dition of the poor slaves, under the unlimited power of such men, in whom, by the long-con- tinued practice of the most heart-rending cruel- lies, every feeling of humanity has been obliterat- ed ? But it may be asked, cannot the slaves have redress by appealing to their masters ? In many instances it is impossible, as their masters live hundreds cf miles off. There are perhaps tiiousands in the northern slave states, [and many in the free states,] who own plantations in the southern slave states, and many more spend their Bummers at the north, or at the various watering places. But wliat would the slaves gain, if they should appeal to the master ? He has placed the overseerover them, with the understanding that he will make as large a crop as possible, and that he is to have entire control, and manage them accord- ing to his own judgment. Now, suppose that in the midst of the season, the slaves make complaint of cruel treatment. The master cannot get , along without an overseer — it is perhaps very sickly on the plantation — he dare not risk his own life there. Overseers are all engaged at that season, and if he takes part with his slaves against the overseer, he would destroy his authority, and very likely provoke him to leave his service — which would of course be a verj' great injury to him. Thus, in nineteen cases out of twenty, self-interest would prevent the master from pay- ing any attention to the complaints of his slaves. And, if any should complain, it would of course come to the ears of the overseer, and the com- plainant would be inhumanly punished for it. CLOTHING. "The rule, where slaves are hired out, is two suits of clothes per year, one pair of shoes, and one blanket ; but as it relates to the great body of the slaves, this cannot be called a general rule. On many plantations, the children under ten or twelve years old, go entirely naked — or, if clothed at all, they have nothing more than a shirt. The cloth is of the coarsest kind, far from being durable or warm ; and their shoes fre- quently coane to pieces in a few weeks. I have never known any provision made, or time allow- ed for the washing of clothes. If they wish to wash, as they have generally but one suit, they go after their day's toil to some stream, build a fire, pull off their clothes and wash them in the stream, and dry them by the fire ; and in some instances they wear their clothes until they are worn off, without washing. I have never known an instance of a slaveholder putting himself to any expense, that his slaves might have decent clothes for the Sabbath. If, by making backets, brooms, mats, &c. at night or on Sundays, the slaves can get money enough to buy a Sunday suit, very well. I have never known an instance of a slaveholder furnishing his slaves with stock- ings or mittens. I hnuw that the slaves suffer much, and no doubt many die in consequence of not being well clothed. FOOD. " In the grain-growing part of the south, the slaves, as it relates to food, fare tolerably well ; but in the cotton, and rice-growing, and sugar-making portion, some of them fare badly. I have been on plantations where, from the ap- pearance of the slaves, I should judge they were half-starved. They receive their allowance very commonly on Sunday morning. They are left to cook it as they please, and when they please. Many slaveholders rarely give their slaves meat, and very few give them more food than will keep them in a working condition. They rarely ever have a change of food. I have never known an instance of slaves on plantations being fur- nished either with sugar, butter, cheese, or milk. WORK. " If the slaves on plantations were well fed and clothed, and had the stimulus of wages, they could perhaps in general perform their tasks without injury. The horn is blown soon after the dawn of day, when all the hands destined for the field must be 'on the march.' If the field is far from their huts, they take their breakfast with them. They toil till about ten o'clock, when they eat it. They then continue their toil till the sun is set. " A neighbor of mine, who has been an over- seer in Alabama, informs me, that there they as- certain how much labor a slave can perform in a 96 Personal ISarratives — Rev. Francis Hawlcy. day, in the followinjr manner. When they com- mence a new cotton field, the overseer takes his watch, and marks how long it takes them to hoe one row, and then lays oft' the task accordingly. My neighbor alsj inl'orms me, that the slaves in Alabama arc worked very hard ; that the lash is almost universally applied at the close of the day, iC they fail to perform their task in the cotton- jjicking season. You will see them, with their baskets of cotton, slowly bending their way to the cotton house, where each one's basket is weighed. They have no means of knowing ac- curately, in the course of the day, how they make progrc.<;s; so that they are in suspense, until their basket is weighed. Here comes the mother," with her children ; she does not know whether her- self, or children, or all of them, must take the lash ; they cannot weigh the cotton themselves — the whole must be trusted to the overseer. While the weighing goes on, all is still. So many pounds short, cries the overseer, and takes up his whip, exclaiming, ' Step this way, you d — n lazy scoun- drel,' or ' bitch.' The poor slave begs, and pro- mises, but to no purpose. The lash is applied until the overseer is satisfied. Sometimes the whip, ping is deferred until the weighing is all over. I have said that all must be trusted to the over- seer. If he owes any one a grudge, or wishes to enjoy the fiendish pleasure of whipping a little, (for some overseers really delight in it,) they have only to tell a falsehood relative to the weight of their basket ; they can then have a pretext to gratify their diabolical disposition ; and from (he character of overseers, I have no doubt that it is frequently done. On all plantations, the male and female slaves fare pretty much alike ; those who are with child are driven to their task till within a few days of the time of their deliv- ery ; and when the child is a few weeks old, the inothcr must again go to the field. If it is far f'rnm her hut, she must take her babe with her, and leave it in the care of some of the children — perhaps of one not more than four or five years old. If the child cries, she cannot go to its re- lief; the eye of the overseer is upon her; and if, when she goes to nurse it, she stays a little longer than the overseer thinks necessary, he commands her back to her task, and perhaps a husband and father must hear and witness it all. Brother, you cannot begin to know what the poor slave mothers suffer, on thousands of plantations at the south. " I will now give a few facts, showing the workings of the system. Some years since, a Presbyterian minister moved from North Caro- lina to Georgia. He had a negro man of an uncommon mind. For some cause, I know not what, this minister whipped him most unmerci- fully. He next nearly drowned him ; he then put him in the fence ; this is done by lifting up the corner of a ' worm' fence, and then putting the feet through ; the rails serve as stocks. He kept him there some time, how long I was not inform- ed, but the poor slave died in a few days ; and, if I was rightly informed, nothing was done about it, either in church or state. After some time, he moved back to North Carolina, and is now a member of Presbytery. I have heard him preach, and have been in the pulpit with him. May God forgive me ! " At Laurel Hill, Richmond county. North Carolina, it was reported that a runaway slave was in the neighborhood. A number of young men took their guns, and went in pursuit. Some of them took tlieir station near the stage road, and kept on the look-out. It was early in the evening — the poor slave came along, when the ambush rushed upon him, and ordered him to surrender. He refused, and kept them off" with his club. They still pressed upon him with their guns presented to his breast. Without seeming to be daunted, he caught hold of the muzzle of one of the guns, and came near getting possession of it. At length, retreating to a fence on one side of the road, he sprang over into a corn-field, and started to run in one of the rows. One of the young men stepped to the fence, fired, and lodged the whole charge between his shoulders ; he fell, and died in a short time. He died with- out telling who his master was, or whether he had any, or what his own name was, or where he was from. A hole was dug by the side of the road , his body tumbled into it, and thus ended the whole matter. " The Rev. Mr. C. a Methodist minister, held as his slave a negro man, who was a member of his own church. The slave was considered a very pious man, had the confidence of his mas- ter, and all who knew him, and if I recollect right he sometimes attempted to preach. Just before the Nat Turner insurrection, in Southamptoti county, Virginia, by which the whole south was thrown into a panic, this worthy slave obtained permission to visit his relatives, who resided either in Southampton, or the county adjoining. This was the only instance that ever came to my knowledge, of a slave being permitted to go so far to visit his relatives. He went and return- ed according to agreement. A few weeks after his return, the insurrection took place, and the whole country was deepl)' agitated. Suspicion soon fixed on this slave. Nat Turner \va« a Baptist minister, and the south became exceed- ingly jealous of all negro preachers. It seemed as if the whole community were impressed with the belief that he knew all about it ; that he and Nat Turner had concerted an extensive insurrec- rcction ; and so confident were the/ in this be- lief, that they took the poor slave, ft'icd him, and hung him. It was all done in a /cw days. Ho protested his innocence to the /ast. After the excitement was over, many were ready to ac- knowledge that they believed him innocent. Ho was hung upon suspicion .' " In R county, North Carolina, lived a Mr. B. who had the name of being a cruel mas- ter. Three or four winters since, his slaves were engaged in clearing a piece of new land. He had a negro girl, ai)out 14 years old, whom he had severely whipped a few'days before, for not performing 'her task. She again failed. The hands left the field for home ; she went with them a part of the way, and fell behind ; but the ne- groes thought she would soon be along; the evening passed away, and she did not come. They finally concluded that she had gone back to the new ground, to lie by the log heaps that were on fire. But they were mistaken : she had sat down by the foot of a large pine. She was thinly clad— the night was cold and rainy. In Personal Narratives — Rev. Francis Hawley. »7 tlie morning the poor giil was found, but she was speechless and died in a short time. '• One of my neighbors sold to a speculator a negro boy, about 14 years old. It was more than his poor mother could bear. Her reason fled, and she became a perfect maniac, and had to be kept in close confinement. She would oc- casionally get out and run off to the neighbors. On one of these occasions she came to my house. She was indeed a pitiable object. With tears rolling down her cheeks, and her frame shaking with agony, she would cry out, ' doiiH you hear him — they are whipping him noic, and he is call- ing for me I' This neighbor of mine, who tore the boy away from his poor mother, and thus broke her heart, was a member of the Presbyteri- an church " I was acquainted with a very wealthy planter, on the Pedee river, in South Carolina, who ha.ortion, which took considerable time in the night. I often awoke and heard the sound of the mill. Grindir^ the corn in the night, and in the dark, after th^jr dav'.s labor and the want of other food, were ^rcat hardships. " The traveling in those parts, among the is- lands, was altogether with boats, rcwcd by from four to ten slaves, which often stopped •tt our plan- tation, and staid through the night, when the slaves, after rowing through the day, were left to shift for themselves ; and when they went to Sa. vannahwith a load of cotton they were obliged to sleep in the open boats, as the law did not allow a colored pennon to be out after eight o'clock in the evening, without a pass from his master." TESTIMONY OF RICHARD MACY. " The above account is from my brother. I was at work on Hilton Head about twenty miles north of my brother, during the same winter. The same allowance of one peck of corn for a week, the same kind of houses to live in, and the same method of grinding their corn, and always in the night, and in the dark, was practiced there. " A number of instances of severe whipping came under my notice. The first was I his : — two men were sent out to saw some blocks out of large live oak timber on which to raise my build. ing. Their saw was in poor order, and they sawed them badly, for which their master strip, ped them naked and flogged them. " The next instance was a boy about sixteen years of age. He had crept into the coach to sleep; after two or three nights he was caught by tlie coach driver, a northern man, and stripped entire^' Personal Narratives — Mr. Eleazar Powell. 99 ly naked, and whipped without mercy, his master looking on. " Another instance. The overseer, a young white man, had ordered several negroes, a boat's crew, to be on the spot at a given time. One man did not appear until the boat had gone. The over- seer was very angry and told him to strip and be flogged ; he being slow, was told if he did not in- stantly strip oft his jacket, he, the overseer, would whip it off, which he did in shreds, whipping him cruelly. '' The man ran into the barrens and it was about a month before they caught him. Hu was nearly starved, and at last stole a turkey; then another, and was caught. " Having occasion to pass a plantation very early one foggy morning, in a boat, we heard the sound of the whip, before we could see, but as we drew up in front of the plantation, we could Bee the negroes at work in the field. The over. seer was going from one to the other causing them to lay down their hoe, strip oft" their gar- ment, hold up their hands and receive their num- ber of lashes. Thus he went on from one to the other until we were out of sight. In the course of the winter a family came where I was, on a visit from a neighboring island ; of course, in a boat with negroes to row them — one of these a barber, told me that he ran away about two year? before, and joined a company of negroes who had fled to the swamps. He said they suifered a great deal — were at last discovered by a party of hun- ters, who fired among them, and caused them to scatter. Himself and one more fled to the coast, took a boat and put otf to sea, a storm came on and swamped or upset them, and his partner waf? drowned, he was taken up by a passing vessel and returned to his master. Richard Macy. Hudson, 12 mo. 29th, 1838. TESTIMONY OF MR. ELEAZAR POWELL. Extract ofa letter from Mr. William Scott a highly respectable citizen of Beaver co. Pennsyl- vania, dated Jan. 7, 1839. Chippewa Township, Beaver co. Pa. Jan. 7, 1839. " I send you the statement of Mr. Eleazar Pow ell, who was bom, and has mostly resided in this township from his birth. His character for so- briety and truth stands above impc?.chment. With sentiments of esteem, I am your friend, William Scott. "In the month of December, 1836, I went to the State of Mississippi to work at my trade, (masonry and bricklaying,) and continued to work in the counties of Adams and JefEsrson, be- tween four and five months. In following my business I had an opportunity of seeing the treat- ment of slaves in several places. " In Adams county I built a chimney for a man named Joseph Gwatney ; he had forty-five field hands of both sexes. The field in which they worked at that time, lay about two miles from the house ; the hands had to cook and eat their breakfast, prepare their dinner, and be in the field at daylight, and continue there till dark. In the evening the cotton they had picked was weighed, and if they fell short of their task they were whipped. One night I attended the weighing — two women fell short of their task, and the mas- ter ordered the black driver to take them to the quarters and flog them ; one of them was to re- ceive twenty-five lashes and pick a peck of cot- ton seed. I have been with the overseer several times through the negro quarters. The huts are generally built of split timber, some larger than rails, twelve and a half feet wide and fourteen feet long — some with and some without chimneys, and generally without floors ; they were generally without daubing, and mostly had split clapboards nailed on the cracks on the outside, though some were without even that : in some there was a kind of rough bedstead, made from rails, polished with the axe, and pat together in a very rough man- ner, the bottom covered with clapboards, and over that a bundle of worn out clothes. In some huts there was no bedstead at all. The above description applies to the places generally with which I was acquainted, and they were mostly old settlements. " In the east pan of Jefferson county I built a chimney for a man named M'Coy ; he had forty-seven laboring hands. Near where I was at work, M'Coy had ordered one of his slaves to set a post for a gate. When he came to look at it, he said the slave had not set it in the right place ; and ordered him to strip, and lie down on his face ; telling him that if he struggled, or attempt- ed to get up, two men, who had been nailed to the spot, should seize and hold him fast. The slave agreed to be quiet, and M'Coy commenced flogging him on the bare back, with the wagon whip. After some time the sufferer attempted to get up ; one of the slaves standing by, seized him by the feet and held him fast ; upon which he yielded, and M'Coy continued to flog him ten or fifteen minutes. AVhen he was up, and had put on his trowsers, the blood came through them. " About half a mde from M'Coy's was a planta. tion owned by his step-daughter. The overseer's name was James Farr, of whom it appears Mrs. M'Coy's waiting woman was enamoured. One night, while I lived there, M'Coy came from Natchez, about 10 o'clock at night. He said that Dinah was gone, and wished his overseer to go with him to Farr's lodgings. They went accord- ingly, one to each door, and caught Dinah as she ran out, she was partly dressed in her mistress's clothes ; M'Coy whipped her unmerciftilly, and she afterwards made her escape. On the next day, (Sabbath), M'Coy came to the overseer's, where I lodged, and requested him and me to look for her, as he was afraid that she had hanged her. self. He then gave me the particulars of the flogging. He stated that near Farr's he had made her strip and lie down, and had flogged her until he was tired ; that before he reached home he had a second time made her strip, and again flogged her until he was tired ; that when he 100 Personal Narratives — Rev. William Scales. reached home he had tied her to a peach-tree, and after getting a drink had flogged her until he was thirsty again ; and while he went to get a drink the woman made her escape. He stated that he knew, from the whipping he had given her, there must be in her back cuts an inch deep. He showed the place where she had been tied to the tree ; there appeared to be as much blood as if a liog had been stuck there. The woman was found on Sabbath evening, near the spring, and had to be carried into the house. " While I lived there I heard M'Coy say, if the slaves did not raise him three hundred bales of cotton the ensuing season, he would kill every ne- gro he had. " Another case of flogging came under my no- tice : — Philip O. Hughes, sheriff" of Jefferson coun- ty, had hired a slave to a man, whose name I do not recollect. On a Sabbath day the slave had drank somewhat freely ; he was ordered by the tavern keeper, (where his present master had left his horse and the negro,) to stay in the kitchen ; the negro wished to be out. In persisting to go out he was knocked down three times ; and after- wards flogged until another young man and my- self ran about hall' a mile, having been drawn by the cries of the negro and the sound of the whip. When we came up, a number of men that had been about the tavern, were whipping him, and at intervals would ask him if he would take off" his clothes. At seeing them drive down the stakes for a regular flogging he yielded, and took them off". They then flogged him until satisfied. On the ne.xt morning I saw him, and his panta- loons were all in a gore of blood. " Daring my stay in Jefferson county, Philip O. Hughes v/as out one day with his gun — he saw a negro at some distance, with a club in one hand and an ear of corn in the other — Hughes stepped behind a tree, and wailed his approach ; he sup- posed the negro to be a runaway, who had es- caped about nine months before from his master, living not very far distant. The negro discovered Hughs before he came up, and started to run ; he refusing to stop, Hoghes fired, and shot him through the arm. Through loss of blood the ne- gro was soon taken and put in jail. I saw Ms wound twice dressed, and heard Hughes make the above statement. "When in Jefferson county I boarded six weeks in Fayette, the county town, wilha tavern keeper named James Truly. He had a slave named Lucy, who occupied the station of chamber maid and table waiter. One day, just after dinner, Mrs. Truly took Lucy and bound her arms round a pine sapling behind the house, and commenced flogging her with a riding-whip ; and when tired would take her chair and rest. She continued thus, alternately flogging andresting, for at least an hour and a half. I afterwards learned from the bar-keep- er, and others, that the woman's offence was that she had bought two candles to set on the table the evening before, not knowing there were yet some in the box. I did not see the act of flogging above related ; but it was commenced before I left the house after dinner ; and my work not be- ingmore than twenty rods from the house, I dis- tinctly heard the cries of the woman all the time, and the manner of tying I had from those who did see it. '' While I boarded at Truly's, an overseer shot a negro about two miles northwest of Fayette, be- longing to a man named Hinds Stuart. I heard Stuart himself state the particulars. It appeared that the negro's wife fell under the overseer's dis- pleasure, and he went to whip her. The negro said she should not be whipped. The overseer then let her go, and ordered him to be seized. The negro, having been a driver, rolled the lash of his whip round his hand, and said he would not be whipped at that time. The overseer repeated his orders. The negro took up a hoe, and no)ie dared to take hold of him. The overseerthcn went to his coat, that he had laid off to whip the negro's wife, and took out his pistol and shot him dead. His mas- ter ordered him to be buried in a hole without a coffin. Stuart stated that he would not have taken two thousand dollars for him. No punish, ment was inflicted on the overseer. Eleazar Powell, Jr." TESTIMONY ON THE AUTHORITY OF REV. WM. SCALES, LYNDON, VT. The following is an extract of a letter from two professional gentlemen and their wives, who have lived for some years in a small village in one of the slave states. They are all persons of the high- est respectability, and are well known in at least one of the New England states. Their names are with the Executive Committee of the Ameri- can Anti-Slavery Society ; but as the individuals would doubtless be murdered by the slaveholders, if they were published, the Committee feel sacredly bound to withhold them. The letter was ad- dressed to a respected clergyman in New England. The writers say : •• A man near us owned a valuable slave — his best — most faithful servant. In a gust of passion, he struck him dead with a lever, or stick of wood. " During the years '3G and '37, the following transpired. A slave in our neighborhood ran away and went to a place about thirty miles dis- tant. There he was found by his pursuers on horse- back, and compelled by the whip to rti7i the dis. tance of thirty miles. It vi'as an exceedingly liot day — and within a few hours after he arrived at the end of his journey the slave was dead. " Another slave ran away, but concluded to re- turn. He had proceeded some distance on his re- turn, when he was met by a company of two or three drivers, who raced, whipped and abused him until he fell down and expired. This took place on the Sabbath." The writer after speaking of another murder of a slave in the neighborhood, without giving the circumstances, say — " There is a powerful New England influence at " the village where they reside — " We may therefore suppose that there would be as little of barbarian cruelty practiced there as any where ; — at least we might suppose that the average amount of cruelty in that vicinity would be sufHcientlv favorable to the side of slavery. — Describe a oir. Personal Narratives — Joseph Ide, Esq. — Rev. Phineas Smith. 101 cle, the centre of which shall be , the residence ] been the amount of murder in the whole slave of the writers, and the radius fifteen miles, and in territory ? The whole south is rife with the about one year three, and I think four slaves I crime of separating husbands and wives, parents have been murdered, within that circle, under I and children." circumstances of horrid cruelty. — What must have | TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH IDE, ESQ. Mr. Ide is a respected member of the Baptist Church in Sheffield, Caledonia county, Vt. ; and recently the Postmaster in that town. He spent a few months at the south in the years 1837 and 8. In a letter to the Rev. Wm. Scales of Lyndon, Vt. written a few weeks since, Mr. Ide writes as fol- lows. " In answering the proposed inquiries, I will say first, that although there arc various other modes resorted to, whipping with the cowskin is the usual mode of inflicting punishment on the poor slave. I have never actually witnessed a whipping scene, for they arc usually taken into 8ome back place for that purpose ; but I have often heard their groans and screams while writh- ing under the lash ; and have seen the blood flow from their torn and lacerated skms after the ven- geance of the inhuman master or mistress had been glutted. You ask if the woman where I boarded whipped a slave to death. I can give you the particulars of the transaction as they were related to me. My informant was a gen- tleman — a member of the Presbyterian church in Massachusetts — who the winter before boarded where I did. He said that Mrs. T had a female slave whom she used to whip unmerciful- ly, and on one occasion, she whipped her as long as she had strength, and after the poor creature was suff'ered to go, she crawled oflf into a cellar. As she did not immediately retui-n, search was made, and she was found dead in the cellar, and the horrid deed was kept a secret in the family, and it was reported that she died of sickness. This wretch at the same time was a member of a Presbyterian church. Towards her slaves she was certainly the most cruel wretch of any wo- man with whom I was ever acquainted — yet she was nothing more than a slaveholder. She would deplore slavery as much as I did, and often told me she was much of an abolitionist as I was. She was constant in the declaration that her kind treatment to her slaves was proverbial. Thought I, then the Lord have mercy on the rest. She has often told me of the cruel treatment of the slaves on a plantation adjoining her faiher'.s in the low country of South Carolina. She says she has often seen them driven to the necessity of eating frogs and lizards to sustain life. As to the mode of living generally, my information is rather limited, being with few exceptions confined to the diiFerent families where I have boarded. My stopping places at the south have mostly been in cities. In them the slaves are better fed and clothed than on plantations. The house servants are fed on what the families leave. But they are kept short, and I think are oftener whipped for stealing something to eat than any other crime. On plantations their food is principally hommo- ny, as the southerners call it. It is simply crack- ed corn boiled. This probably constitutes seven- eights of their living. The house-servants in cities are generally decently clothed, and some favorite ones are richly dressed, but those on the plantations, especially in their dress, if it can be called dress, exhibit the most haggard and squalid appearance. I have frequently seen those of both sexes more than two-thirds naked. I have seen from forty to sixty, male and female, at work in a field, many of both sexes with their bodies entirely naked — who did not exhibit signs of shame more than cattle. As I did not go among them much on the plantations, I have had but few opportunities for examining the backs of slaves — but have frequently passed where they were at work, and been occasionally present with them, and in almost every case there were marks of violence on some parts of them — every age, sex and condition being liable to the whip. A son of the gentleman with whom I boarded, a young man about twenty-one years of age, had a plantation and eight or ten slaves. He used to boast almost every night of whipping some of them. One day he related to me a case of whip- ping an old negro — I should judge sixty years of age. He said he called him up to flog him for some real or supposed offence, and the poor old man, being pious, asked the privilege of prajnng before he received his punishment. He said he granted him the favor, and to use his own ex- pression, ' The old nigger knelt down and pray, ed for me, and then got up and took his whip- ping.' In relation to negro huts, I will say that planters usually own large tracts of land. They have extensive clearings and a beautiful mansion house — and generally some forty or fifty rods from the dwelling are situated the negro cabins, or huts, built of logs in the rudest manner. Some consist of poles rolled up together and covered with mud or clay — many of them not as comfortable as northern pig-sties." TESTIMONY OF REV. PHINEAS SMITH. Mri. Smith is now pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Centreville, Allegany county, N. Y. He has recently returned from a residence in the slave states, and the American slave holdUig set- lements in Texas. The following is an extract of a letter lately received from him. " You inquire respecting instances of cruelty that have come within mv knowledge. I reply^ 102 Personal Narratives —Mr. Philemon Bliss. Avarice and cruelty constitute the very gist of the whole slave system. Many of the enormities committed upon the plantations will not be de- scribed till God brings to light the hidden things of darkness, then tlie tears and groans and blood of innocent men, women and children will be re- vealed, and the oppressor's spirit must confront that of his victim. " I will relate a case of torture whicii occurred on the Brasses while 1 resided a few miles distant upon the Chocolate Bayou. The case should be remembered as a true illustration of the nature of slavery, as it exists at the south. The facts are these. An overseer by the name of Alexan- der, notorious for his cruelty, was found dead in the timbered lands of the Brasses. It was sup- posed that he was murdered, but who perpetrated the act was unknown. Two black men were however seized, taken into the Prairie and put to the torture. A physician by the name of Parrolt from Tennessee, and another from New England by the name of Anson Jones, were present on this occasion. The latter gentleman is now tlie Texan minister plenipotentiary to the United States, and resides at AVashiiigton. The unfor- tunate slaves being stripped, and all tilings ar- ranged, the torture commenced by whipping upon their bare backs. Six athletic men were em- ployed in this scene of inhumanity, the names of some of whom I well remember. There was one of the name of Brown, and one or two of the name of Patton. Those six executioners were successively employed in cutting up the bodies of these defenceless slaves, who persisted to the last in the avowal of their innocence. The bloody whip was however kept in motion till savage bar- barity itself was glutted. When this was ac- complished, the bleeding victims were re-convey- ed to the inclosure of the mansion house where they were deposited for a few moments. ' Tlie dying groans however incommoding the ladies, they were taken to a back shed where one of them soon expired* ' The life of tlie other slave was for a time despaired of, but after hanging over the grave for months, he at length so far recover- ed as to walk about and labor at light work. These facts cannot be controverted. They were disclosed under the solemnity of an oath, at Co- lumbia, in a court of justice. I was present, and shall never forget them. The testimonj' of Drs. Parrott and Jones was most appalling. I seem to hear the death-groans of that murdered man. His cries for mercy and protestations of inno- * The words of Dr. Parrott, a witness on the trial hereaf- (HT referred to. cence fell upon adamantine hearts. The facts above stated, and others in relation to this scene of cruelty came to light in the following manner. The master of the murdered man commenced legal process against the actors in this tragedy for the recovery of the value of the chattel, as one would institute a suit for a horse or an ox that had been unlawfully killed. It was a suit for the recovery of damages merely. No indictment wa^ even dreamed of. Among the witnesses brought upon tlie stand in the progress of this cause were the physicians, Parrott and Jones above named. The part which they were called to act in this affair was, it is said, to examine the pulse of the victims during the process of torture. But they were mistaken as to the quantum of torture which a human being can undergo and not die under it. Can it be believed that one of these physicians was born and educated in the land of the pilgrims ? Yes, -in my own native New En- gland. It is even so I The stone-Iike apathy ma- nifested at the trial of the above cause, and the screams and the death-groans of an innocent man, as developed by the testimony of the witnesses, can never be obliterated from my memorv. They form an era in my life, a point to which I look back with horror. " Another case of cruelty occurred on the San Bernard near Chance Prairie, where I resided for sometime. The facts were these. A slave manfled from his master, (Mr. Sweeny) and being closely pursued by the overseer and a son of the owner, he stepped a few yards in the Bernard and placed himself upon a root, from which there was no possibility of his escape, for he could not swim. In this situation he was fired upon with a blunderbuss loaded heavily with ball and grape shot. The overseer who shot the gun was at a distance of a few feet only. The charge entered the body of the negro near the groin. He was conveyed to the plantation, lingered in inexpres- sible agony a few days and expired. A physician was called, but medical and surgical skill was unavailing. No notice whatever was taken of this murder by the public authorities, and the murderer was not discharged from the service of his employer. " When slaves flee, as they not unfrequently do, to the timbered lands of Texas, they are hunted with guns and dogs. "The sufferings of the slave not unfrequently drive him to despair and suicide. At a plantation on the San Bernard, where there were but five slaves, two during the same year committed sui- cide by drowning." TESTIMONY OF PHILEMON BLISS, ESQ. Mr. Bliss is a highly respectable member of the bar, in Elyria, Lorain Co. Oliio, and member of the Presbyterian church, in that place. He resided in Florida, during the years 1834 and 5. The following extracts arc from letters, writ- ten by Mr. B. in 1835, while residing on a plan- tation near Tallahassee, and published soon after in the Ohio Atlas ; also from letters written in 1836, and pubhshed in the New York Evange- list. " In speakingof slavery as it is, I hardly know where to begin. The physical condition of the slave is far from being accurately known at the north. Gentlemen traveling in the south can know nothing of it. Tiioy must make the south their residence ", they must live on plantations, before they can have any opportunity of judging of the Personal Narratives — Philemon Bliss. 103 slave. I resided in Augustine five months, and had I not made particular inquiries, which most northern visitors very seldom or never do, I should have left there with the impression that the slaves were generally very well treated, and were a happy people. Such is the report of many northern travelers who have no more op portunity of knowing their real condition than if they had remained at home. What confidence could we place in the reports of the traveler, relative to the condition of the Irish peasantry, who formed his opinion from the appearance of the waiters at a Dublin hotel, or the household ser- vants of a coantry gentleman ? And it is not often on plantations even, ih&t strangers can wit- ness the p:inlshment of the slave . I was conversing the other day with a neighboring planter, upon the brutal treatment of the slaves which I had wit- nessed : he remarked, that had I been with him I should not hive seen this. " When I whip niggers, I take them put of sight and hearing." Such being the difficulties in the way of a stran- ger's ascertaining the treatment of the slaves, it is not to be wondered at that gentlemen, of un- doubted veracity, should give directly false state. ments relative to it. But facts cannot lie, and in giving these I confine myself to what has come under my ovn personal observation. " The negroes commence labor by daylight in the morning, and, excepting the plowboys, wlio must feed and rest their horses, do not leave the field till dark in the evening. There is a good deal of cont^-^ntion among planters, who shall make the most cotton to the hand, or, who shall drive their negroes the hardest ; and I have heard bets made and staked upon the issue of the crops. Col. W. was boasting of his large crops, and swore that ' he made for his force, the largest crops in the country.' He was disputed of course. On ri- ding home in companv with Mr. C. the conver- sation turned upon Col. W. My companion re- marked, that though Col. W. had the reputation of making a large crop, yet he could beat him himself, and did do it the last year. I remarked that I considered it no honor to Col. W. to drive his slaves to death to make a large crop. I have heard no more about large crops from him since. Drivers or overseers usually drive the slaves worse than masters. — Their reputation for good overseers depends in a great measure upon the crops they make, and the death of a slave is no loss to them. " Of the extentand cruelty of the punishment of the slave, the northern public know nothing. From the nature of the case they can know little, as I have before mentioned, '' I hare seen a woman, a mother, compelled, in the presence of her master and mistress, to hold up her clothes, and endure the whip of the driver on the naked body for more than tioenty minutes, and while her cries would have rent the heart of anyone, who had not hardened himself to human suffering. Her master and mistress were con- versing with apparent indifference. What was her crime ? She had a task given her of sewing which she must finish that day. Late at night she finished it ; but the stitches icere too long, and she must bo whipped. The same was repeat- ed three or four nights for the same offence. / have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive 305 blows with the paddle* on the- fleshy parts of the body. Two others received the same kind of punishment at the time, though I did not count the blows. One received 230 lashes. Their crime was stealing mutton. I ha.ve frequently heard the shrieks of the slaves, male and female, accompanied by the strokes of the paddle or whip, wh.'n I have not gone near the scene of horror. I knew not tlieir crimes, excepting of one woman, which was stealing; /oMr/)o/aioes to eat with her bread! The more common number of lashes inflicted was fifty or eighty ; and this I saw not once or twice, but so frequently that I can not tell the number of times I have seen it. So frequently, that my own heart was becoming so hardened that I could witness with comparative indifference, the female writhe under the lash, and her shrieks and cries for mercy ceased to pierce my heart with that keen- ness, or give me that anguish which they first caused. It was not always that I could learn their crimes ; but of those I did learn, the most common was non-performance of tasks. I have seen men strip and receive from one to three hundred strokes of the whip and paddle. My studies and meditations were almost nightly in- terrupted by the cries of the victims of cruelty and avarice. Tom, a slave of Col. N. obtained permission of his overseer on Sunday, to visit his son, on a ncigliboring plantation, belonging in part to his master, but neglected to take a " pass." Upon its being demanded by the other overseer, he replied that he had permission to come, and that his having a mule was sufficient evidence of it, and if he did not consider it as such, he could take him up. The overseer replied he would take him up ; giving him at the same time a blow on the arm with a stick he held in his hand, sufficient to lame it for some time. Tlie negro collared him, and thi'ew him ; and on the over- seer's commanding him to submit to be tied and whipped, he said he would not bo whipped by him but would leave it to massa J. They came, to massa J.'s. I was thefe. After the overseer had related the case as above, he was blamed for not shooting or stabbing him at once. — After dinner the negro was tied, and the whip given to the overseer, and he used it witii a severity that was shocking. I know not how many lashes were given, but from his shoulders to his heels there was not a spot unridged ! and at almost ever}^ stroke the blood flowed. He could not have received less than 300, irell laid on. But his offence was great, almost the greatest known, laying hands on a white man ! Had he struck the overseer, under any provocation, he would have been in some way disfigured, perhaps by the loss of his ears, in addition to a whipping ; or he might have been hung. The most com mon cause of punishments is, not finishing tasks. " But it would be tedious mentioning further particulars. The negro has no other inducement to work but the lash ; and as man never acts without motive, the lash must be used so long as all other motives are withheld. Hence cor- poreal punishment is a necessary part of slavery. " Punishme-.its for runaways are usually severe. * A piece of oa'v limber two and a half feet long, flat and wide at one end. 104 Personal Narratives — Philemon Bliss. Once whipping is not sufficient. I have known runaways to be whipped for six or seven nights in succession for one oftlnce. I have known others who, with pinioned hands, and a chain extending from an iron collar on their neck, to the saddle of tlieir master's iiorse, have been tu-ivcn at a smart trot, one or two hundred miles, iieing compelled to ford water courses, their drivers, according to their own confession, not abating a whit in the rapidity of their journey for the ease of the slave. One tied a kettle of sand to his slave to render his journey more arduous. '' Various arc the instruments of torture devised to keep the slave in subjection. The stocks are sometimes used. Sometimes blocks are filled with pegs and nails, and the slave compelled to stand upon them. " While stopping on the plantation of a Mr. C. I saw a whip with a knotted lash lying on the table, and inquired of my companion, who was also an acquaintance of Mr. C.'s, if he used that to whip his negroes ? " Oh," says he, " Mr. C. is not severe with his hands. He never whips very hard. The knots in the lash are so large that he does not usually draw blood in whip, ping them." '' It was principally from hearing the conversa- tion of southern men on the subject, that I judge of the cruelty that is generally practiced toward slaves. They will deny tliat slaves are generally ill treated ; but ask them if they are not whipped for certain olP3nces, which cither a freeman would have no temptation to commit, or which would not be an offence in any but a slave, and for non.pcrformance of tasks, they will answer promptly in the affirmative. And frequently have I heard them excuse their cruelty by citing Mr. A. or Mr. B. who is a Christian, or Mr. G. a preacher, or Mr. D. from the north, who " drives his hands tighter, and whips them hard- er, than we ever do." Driving negroes to the utmost extent of their ability, with occasionally a hundred lashes or more, and a few switchings in the field if they hang taick in the driving seasons, viz : in the hoing and picking months, is perfect- ly consistent with good treatment ! " While traveling across the Peninsula in a stage, in company with a northern gentleman, and southern lady, of great worth and piety, a dispute arose respecting the general treatment of slaves, the gentleman contending that their treatment was generally good — ' O, no!' inter- rupted the lady, ' you can know nothing of the treatment they receive on the plantations. Peo- ple here do whip the poor negroes most cruelly, and many half starve tlieni. You have neither of you had opportunity to know scarcely any thing of the cruelties that are practiced in this country,' and more to the same eiicct. I met with several others, besides this lady, who appeared to feel for the sins ol the land, but they are few and scattered, and not usually of sufficiently stern mould to withstand the popular wave. " Masters arc not forward to publish tlieir " domestic regulations," and as neighbors are usually several miles apart, one's observation must be limited. Hence the few instances of cruelty which break out can be but a fraction of what is practised. A planter. :■. professor of re- ligion, in conversation \:po); ■ ■ universality of whipping, remarked that a planter in G , who had whipped a great deal, at length got tired of it, and invented tlio following excellent method of punishment, which I saw practised while I was paying him a visit. The negro was ])laced in a sitting position, with his hands made last above his head, and feet in the slocks, so that he could not move an3' part of the body. " The master retired, intending to leave him tiJl morning, but we were awakened in the night by the groans of the negro, wiiich were so doleful that we feared he was dying. We went to him, and found him covered with a cold sweat, and almost gone. He could not have lived an hour longer. Mr. found the ' stocks' such an effective punishment, that it almost superseded the whip." " How much do you give yoiu- niggers for a task while hoeing cotton," inquired Mr. C of his neighbor Mr. H . H. " I give my men an acre and a quarter, and my women an acre."* C. " Well, that is a fair task. Niggers do a heap better if they are drove pretty tight." H. " O yes, I have driven mine into complete subordination. When I first bought them they were discontented and wished me to sell them, but I soon whipped that out of them ; and they now work very contentedly 1" C. " Does Mary keep up with the rest ?" H. " No, she does'nt often finish the task alone, she has to get Sam to help her out after he has done his, to save her a whipping. There's no other way but to be severe with them." C. " No other, sir, if )'ou favor a nigger you spoil him." " The whip is considered as necessary on a plan- tation as the plough ; and its use is almost as common. The negro whip is the common team- ster's whip with a black leather stock, and a short, fine, knotted lash. The paddle is also frequently used, sometimes with holes bored in the flattened end. The ladies (!) in chastising their domestic servants, generally use the cowhide. I have knov.'n some use shovel and tongs. It is, how- ever, more common to commit them to the driver to be whipped. The manner of whipping is as follows : The negro is tied by his hands, and sometimes feet, to a post or tree, and stripped to the skin. The female slave is not always tied. The number of lashes depends upon the character for severity of the master or overseer. " Another instrument of torture is sometimes used, how extensively I know not. The negro, or, in the case which came to my knowledge, the negress was compelled to stand barefoot upon a block filled with sharp pegs and nails for two nr three hours. In case of sickness, if the master or overseer thinks them seriously ill, they are taken care of, but their complaints are usual- ly not much heeded. A physician tcld me that he was employed by a planter last winter to go to a plantation of his in the country, as many 'if the negroes were sick. Says he — " I found them in a most miserable condition. Tiic weather was cold, and the negroes were barefoot, with hardly enough, of cotton clothing to cover their nakedness. Those who had huts to shelter them * (Cotton is planted in drilla about three feet apart, and ia hilled like corn. Personal Narratives — Rev. Wm. A. Chapin. 105 were obliged to build thcra nights and Sundays. Many were sick and some had died. I had the sick taken to an older plantation ot" their masters, where they could be made comfortable, and they recovered. I directed that they should not go to work till after sunrise, and should not' work in the rain till their health became estabhsh- ed. But the overseer refusing to permit it, 1 de- clined attending on them farther. I wp,s call- ed,' continued he, ' by the overseer of another plawtation to see oncof the men. I found him lying by the side of a log in great pain. I asked him how he did, ' O,' says he, ' I'm most dead, can live but little longer.' How long have you been sick ? ' I've feit for more than six weeks as though I could hardly slir.' Why didn't you tell your master, you was sick ? ' I couldn't see my master, and the overseer always whips us when we complain, I could not stand a whip- ping.' I did all I could for the poor fellow, but his lungs tvere rotten. He died in three days from the time he left off work.' The cruelty of that overseer is such that the negroes almost tremble at his name. Yet he gets a high salary, for he makes the largest crop of any other man in the neighborhood, though none but the hard, iest negroes can stand it under him. " That man," says the Doctor, " would be hung in ray country." He was a German. TESTIMONY OF REV. WILLIAM A. CHAPIN. Rev. WiLLi.vM Scales, of Lyndon, Vermont, has furnished the following testimony, under date of Dec. 15, 1838. " I send you an extract from a letter that I have just received, which you may use ad libitum. The letter is from Rev. Wra. A. Chapin, Greens, borough, Vermont. To one who is acquainted with Mr. C. his opinion and statements must carry conviction even to the most obstinate and incredulous. He observes, ' I resided, as a teach- er, nearly two years in the family of Carroll Webb, Esq., of Hampstcad, New Kent co. about twenty miles from Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Webb had three or four plantations, and was considered one of the two wealthiest men in the county : it was supposed he owned about two hundred slaves. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was elected an elder vi'hile I was with him. He was a native of Virginia, but a graduate of a New- England college. " ' The slaves were called in the morning before daylight, I believe at all seasons of the year, that they might prepare their food, and be ready to go tx) work as soon as it was light enough to see. I know that at the season of husking corn, October and November, they were usually compelled to work late — till 12 or 1 o'clock at night. I know this fact because they accompanied their work with a loud singing of their own sort. I usually retired to rest between 11 and 12 o'clock, and generally heard them at their work as long as I was awake. The slaves lived in wretched log cabins, of one room each, without floors or win- dows. I believe the slaves sometimes suffer for want of food. One evening, as I was sitting in the parlor with Mr. W. one of the most resolute of the slaves came to the door, and said, " Mas- ter, I am willing to work for you, -but I want something to eat." The only reply was, " Clear yourself." I learned that the slaves had been without food all day, because the man who was sent to mill could not obtain his grinding. He went again the next day, and obtained his grist, and the slaves had no food till he returned. He had to go about five miles.* " I know the slaves wore sometimes severely whipped. I saw the backs of several wbich had numerous scars, evidently caused by long and deep lacerations of the whip ; and I have good reason to believe that the slaves were generally in that condition ; for I never saw the back of one e.Kposed that was not thus marked, — and from their tattered and scanty clothing their backs were often exposed." *To this. Rev. Mr. Scales adds, "In familiar language, and in more detail, as I have learned it in conversation with Mr. Chapin, the fact is as follows : — "Mr. W. kept, what he called a 'boy,' i.e. a man, to go to mill. It was lii.s custom not to stive his slaves anything to eat while he was gone to mill — let him have been gone long er or shorter — for this reason, if he was lazy, and delayed, the slaves would become hungry : hence indignant, and abuse him — this was his punisliment. On that occasion he went to mill in the morning. The slaves came up at noon, and returned to work without food. At night, after having worked hard ail day, witliout food, went to bed without supper. About 10 o'clock the next day. they came up in a company, to their master's door, (that master an elder in the church), and deputed one more resolute than the rest to address him. This he did in the most respectful tones and terms. " 'We are willing to work for you, master, but we can't work without food ; we want something to eat." " Clear yourself," was the answer. Tlie slaves retired ; and in the morning were driven away to work without food. At noon, I think, or somewhat after, they were fed." TESTIMONY OF MESSRS. T. D. M. AND F. C. MACY. This testimony is communicated in a letter from Mr. Cyrus Pierce, a respectable and well known citizen of Nantucket, Mass. Of the wit- nesses, Messrs. T. D. M. and F. C. Macy, Mr. Pierce says, " They arc both inhabitants of this island, and have resided at the south ; they •re both worthy men, for whose integrity and intelligence I can vouch unqualifiedly ; the for- mer has furnished me with the following state- ment. " During the winter of 1832 — 3, I resided on the island of St. Simon, Glynn county, Georgia. There are several extensive cotton plantations on the island. The overseer of the plantation on 106 Personal Narratives — T. D. M. and F. C. Macy. -hat part of the island where I resided was a Georgian — a man of stern character, and at •imes cruelly abusive to h\s s\a.\cs. I have often been witness of the abuse of his power. In South Carohna and Georgia, on tlic low lands, the cul. tivation is chiefly of rice. The land where it is laised is often inundated, • and the labor of pre- paring it, and raising a crop, is verj' arduous. JMcn and women are in the held from earliest dawn to dark — often xcithout hats, and up to tUfir arm-pits in nmd and water. At St. Si- mon's, cotton was the staple article. Ocra, the driver, usually waited on the' overseer to receive orders for tlie succeeding day. If any slave was insolent, or negligent, the driver was authorized to punish him with the whip, with as many blows a.s the magnitude of the crime justified. He was frcqucntl}' cautioned, upon the peril of his skin, to s:en that all the negroes were off to the field in the morning. ' Oera,' said the overseer, one evening, to the driver, 'if any pretend to be .sick, send me word — allow no lazy wench or fel- low to skulk in the negro house.' Next morning, a few minutes after the departure of the hands to the field, Ocra was seen hastening to the house of the overseer. He was soon in his presence. ' Well, Ocra, what now ?' Nothing, sir, only Rachel says she sick — can't go to de field to-day.' ' Ah, sick, is she ? I'll see to her ; you may be off. She shall see if I am longer to be fooled with in this way. Here, Christmas, mix these salts — bring them to me at the negro house.' And seizing his whip, he made ofi to the negro settlement. Having a strong desiie to see what would be the result, I followed him. As I ap- proached the negro house, I heard high words. Rachel was stating her complaint — cliildren were crying from fright — and the overseer threatening. Rachel. — ' I can't work to-day — I'm sick.' Over- seer. — ' But you shall work, if you die for it. Here, take these salts. Now move off — quick — let me see your face again before night, and, by G — d, you shall smart for it. Be off — no beg- ging — not a word ;' — and he dragged her from the house, and followed her 20 or 30 rods, threat- ening. The woman did not reach the field. Overcome by the exertion of walking, and by agitation, she sunk down exhausted bj' the road side — was taken up,- and carried back to the liouse, where an abortion occurred, and her iife was greatly jeoparded. " It was no uncommon sight to see a whole family, father, mother, and from two to five children, collected together aroimd their piggin of hommony, or pail of potatoes, watched by the overseer. One meal was always eaten in the field. No time M'as allowed for relaxation. " It was not unusual for a child of five or six years to perform the office of nurse — because the mother worked in a remote part of the field, and was not allowed to leave her employment to take care of her infant. AVant of proper nutriment induces sickness of the worst type. "No matter what the nature of the service, a peck of corn, dealt out on Sunday, must supply the demands of nature for a week. "The Sabbath, on a southern plantation, is a mere nominal holida3^ The slaves are liable to be called upon at all times, by those who have authority over them. " When it rained, the slaves were allowed !o collect under a tree until the shower had passed. Seldom, on a week day, were they permitted to go to their huts during rain ; and even had this privilege been granted, many of those miserable iiabitations were in so dilapidated a condition, that they would afford little or no protection. Negro huts are built of logs, covered with boards or thatch, having no flooring, and but one apart- ment, serving all the purposes of sleeping, cook- ing, «Stc. Some are furnished with a temporary loft. I have seen a whole family herded together in a loft ten feet by twelve. In cold weather, they gather around the fire, spread their blankets on the ground, and keep as comfortable as they can. Their supply of clothing is scanty — each slave being allowed a Holland coat and pantaloons, of the coarsest manufacture, and one pair of cow- hide shoes. The women, enough of the same kind of cloth for one frock. They have also one pair of shoes. Shoes are given to the slaves in the winter only. In summer, their clothing is composed of osnaburgs. Slaves on different plan- tations are not allowed without a written per- mission, to visit their fellow bondsmen, under penalty of severe chastisement. I witnessed the chastisement of a j'oung male slave, who was found lurking about the plantation, and could give no other account of himself, than that he wanted to visit some of his acquaintance. Fifty lashes was the penalty for this offence. I could not endure the dreadful shrieks of the tortured slave, and rushed away from the scene." The remainder of this testimony is furnished by Mr. F. C. Macv. " I went to Savannah in 1820. Sailing up the river. I had my first view of slavery. A large number of men and women, with a piece of board on their heads, carrying mud, for the pur- pose of dyking, near the river. After tarrying a while in Savannah, I went down to the sea islands of De Fuskce and Hilton Head, where I spent six months. Negro houses are small, built of rough materials, and nofoor. Their clothing, (one suit,) coarse ; which thcv received on Christ- mas day. Their food was three pecks of pota- toes per week, in the potatoe season, and one peck of corn the remainder of the year. The slaves carried with them into the field their meal, and a gourd of water. They cooked their hommony in the field, and ate it with a wooden paddle Their treatment was little better than that of brutes. Whipping was nearly an every-day practice. On Mr. M 's plantation, at the island De Fuskee, I saw an old man whipped ; he was about 60. He had no elotliing on, except a shirt. The man that inflicted the blows was Flim, a tall and stout man. The whipping was nery severe. I inquired into the cause. Some vegetables had been stolen from his master's gar- den, of which he could give no account. I saw several women whipped, some of whom were in very r/e/'>^//e cirenmstanees. The ease of one I will relate. She had been purchased in Charleston, and separated from her liusband. On her passage to Savannah, or rafher to the island, she was dc livered of a child ; and in about three weeks alter this, she appeared to be deranged. She wouhi leave her work, go into the woods, and smg Personal Narratives — A Clergyman. 107 Her master sent for her, and ordered the driver to wliip her. I was near enough to hear the strokes. " I have known negro boys, partly by persua- sion, and partly by force, made to strip off their clothing and figlit for the amusement of their masters. They would fight until both got to crying. " One of the planters told me that his boat had been used without permission. A number of his negroes were called up, and put in a building that was lalhcd and shingled, "i'he covering could be easily removed from the inside. He called one out for examination. While examin- ing this one, he discovered another negro, com- ing out of the roof He ordered him back : he obeyed. In a few moments he attempted it again. The master took deliberate aim at his head, but his gun missed fire. He told me he should probably have killed him, had his gun gone off. The negro jumped and run. The master took aim again , and fired ; but he was so far distant, that he received only a few shots in the calf of his leg. After several days he return- ed, and received a severe whipping. " Mr. B , planter at Hilton Head, freely confessed, tliat he kept one of his slaves as a mis- tress. She slept in the same room with him. Tiiis, I think, is a very common practice." TESTIMONY OF A CLERGYMAN. The following letter was written to Mr. Ar- THUR Tappan, of New York, in the summer of 1833 As the name of the writer cannot be pub- lished with safety to himself, it is withheld. The following testimonials, from Mr. Tappan, Professor Wright, and Thomas Ritter, M. D. of New York, establish the trust-worthiness and high respectability of the writer. " I received the following letters from the south during the year 1833. They were written by a gentleman who had then resided some years in the slave states. Not being at liberty to give the writer's name, I cheerfully certify that he is a gentleman of established character, a graduate of Yale College, and a respected minister of the gospel. " Arthur Tappan." " My acquaintance with the writer of the fol- lowing letter commenced, I believe, in 1823, from which time we were fellow students in Yale Col- lege till 1826. I have occasionally seen him since. His character, so far as it has come within my knowledge, has been that of an upright and re- markably candid man. I place great confidence both in his habits of careful and unprejudiced ob- servation and his veracity. " E. Wright, jun. " New York, April 13, 1839." " I have been acquainted with the writer of the following letter about twelve years, and know him to be a gentleman of high respectability, in- tegrity, and piety. We were fellow students in Yale College, and my opportunities for judging of his character, both at that time and since our oraduation, have been such, that I feel myself fullv warranted in making the above unequivocal declaration. " Thomas Ritter. " 104, Cherry-street, New York." "Natchez, 1833. " It has been almost four years since I came to the south-west ; and although I have been told, from month to month, that I should soon wear off my northern prejudices, and probably have slaves of my own, yet my judgment in regard to oppres- sion, or my prejudices, if they arc pleased so to call them remain with me still. I judge still from those principles whicli were fixed in my mind at the north ; and a residence at the south has not enabled me so to pervert truth, as to make m(us. tice appear justice. " I have studied the state of things here, now for years, coolly and deliberately, with the eye of an uninterested looker on ; and hence I may not be altogether unprepared to state to }'ou some facts, and to draw conclusions from them. " Permit me then to relate what I have seen ; and do not imagine that tliese are all exceptions to the general treatment, but rather believe that thousands of cruelties are practised in this Chris- tian land, every year, which no eye that ever shed a tear of pity could look upon. " Soon after my arrival I rgade an excursion into the country, to the distance of some twenty miles. And as I was passing by i cotton field, where about fifty negroes were at work, I was inclined to stop by the road side to view a scene which was then new to me. While I was, in my mind, comparing this mode of labor with that of my own native place, I heard the driver, with a rough oath, order one that was near him, who seemed to be laboring to the extent of his power, to "lie down." In a moment he Avas obeyed ; and he commenced whipping the offender upon his na- ked back, and continued, to the amount of about twenty lashes, with a heavy raw-hide whip, tlie crack of which might have been heard more than half a mile. Nor did the females escape ; for al- though I stopped scarcely fifteen minutes, no less than three were whipped in the same manner, and that so severely, I was strongly inclined to interfere. " You may be assured, sir, that I remained not unmoved : I could no longer look on sni^h cruel- ty, but turned away and rode on, while the echoes of the lash were reverberating in the woods around me. Such scenes have long since become fami- liar to me. But then the full effect was not lost : and I shall never forget, to my latest day, the mingled feelings of pity, horror, and indignation that took possession of my mind. I involuntarily exclaimed, O God of my fathers, how dost thou permit such things to defile our land I Be mer- ciful to us 1 and visit us not in justice, for all our iniquities and the iniquities of our fathers! " As I passed on I soon found that I had escaped from one horrible scene only to witness another. A planter with whom I was well acquantcd, had caught a negro without a pass. And at the mo- ment I was passing by, he was in the act of fas- 108 Personal Narratives — A Clergyman. tening his feet and hands to the trees, having previously made him take oft' all his clothing ex- cept his tro-.vsers. When he had sufiiciently se- cured this poor creature, he beat him for several minutes with a green switch more than six feet long ; while he was writiiing with anguish, en- deavoring in vain to break the cords with which he was bound, and incessantly crying out, "Lord, master ! do pardon me this time ! do, master, have mercy I" These expressions have recurred to me a thousand times since ; and although they came from one that is not considered among the sons of men, yet I think they are well worthy of remembrance, as they might lead a wise man to consider whether such shall receive mercy from the righteous Judge, as never showed mercy to their fellow men. * " At length I arrived at the dwelling of a planter of my acquaintance, with whom I passed the night. At about eight o'clock in the evening I heard the barking of several dogs, mingled with the most agonizing cries that I ever heard from any human being. Soon after the gentleman came in, and began to apologize, by saying that two of his runavv'ay slaves had just been brought homo ; and as he had previously tried every spe- cies of punishment upon them without effect, he knew not what else to add, except to set his blood hounds upon them. ' And,' continued he, ' one of them has been so badly bitten that he has been trying to die. I am only sorry that he did not ; for then I should not have been further troubled with him. If he lives I intend to send him to Natchez or to New Orleans, to work with the ball and chain.' " From this last remark I understood that private individuals have the right of thus subjecting their unmanageable slaves. I have since seen num- bers of these ' ball and chain' men, both in Nat- chez and New Orleans, but I do not know whe- tlier there were any among them except the state convicts. " As the summer was drawing towards a close, and the yellow fever beginning to prevail in town, I went to reside some months in the country. This was the colton picking season, during which, the planters say, there is a greater necessity for logging than at any other time. And I can as- sure you, that as I have sat in my window night after night, while the cotton was being weighed, I have heard the crack of the whip, without much mtermission, for a whole hour, from no less than three plantations, some of which were a full mile distant. " I found that the slaves were kept in the field from daylight until dark ; and then, if they had not gathered what the master or overseer thought sufficient, they were subjected to the lash. " Many by such treatment are induced to run away and take up their lodging in the woods. I do not say that all who run away are thus closely pressed, but I do know that many are ; and I have known no less than a dozen desert at a time from the same plantation, in consequence of the over- .seer's forcing them to work to the extent of their power, and then whipping them for not having done more. " But suppose that they run away — what is to become of them in the forest ? If they cannot eteal they must perish of hunger — if the nights are cold, their feet will be frozen ; for if they make a fire they may be discovered, and be shot at. If they attempt to leave the country, their chance of success is about nothing. They must return, be whipped — if old offenders, wear the collar, per- haps be branded, and fare worse than before. " Do you believe it, sir, not six months since, I saw a number of my Christian neighbors packing up provisions, as I supposed for a deer hunt ; but as I was about offering myself to the party, I learned that their powder and balls were destined to a very different purpose : it was, in short, the design of the party to bring home a number of runaway slaves, or to shoot them if they should not be able to get possession of them in any other way. " You will ask, Is not this murder ? Call it, sir, by what name you please, such aie the facts: — many are shot every year, and that too while the masters say they treat their slaves well. "But let me turn your attention to another spe- cies of cruelty. About a year since I knew a cer- ■;un slave who had deserted his master, to be caught, and for the first time fastened to the stocks. In those same stocks, from which at mid- night I have heard cries of distress, while the master slept, and was dreaming, perhaps, of drink- ing wine and of discussing the price of cotton. On the next morjiing he was chained in an im- movable posture, and branded in both cheeks with red hot stamps of iron. Such are the tender mer- cies of men who love wealth, and are determined to obtain it at any price. " Suffer me to add another to the list of enormi- ties, and I will not offend you with more. " There was, some time since, brought to trial in this town a planter residing about fifteen miles distant, for whipping his slave to death. You will suppose, of course, that be was punished. No, sir, he was acquitted, although there could be no doubt of the fact. I heard the tale of mur- der from a man who was acquainted with all the circumstances. ' I was,' said he , ' passing along the road near the burying-ground of the planta- tion, about nine o'clock at night, when I saw se- veral lights gleaming through the woods ; and as I approached, in order to see what was doing, I beheld the coroner of Natchez, with a number of men, standing around the body of a young female, which by the torches seemed almost perfectly white. On inquiry I learned that the master had so unmercifully beaten this girl that she died un- der the operation : and that also he had so severe- ly punished another of his slaves that he was but just ahve.' " We here rest the case for the present, so far as respects the presentation of facts showing the con- dition of the slaves, and proceed to consider the main objections which are usually employed to weaken such testimony, or wholly to set it aside. But before we enter upon the examination of spa. cific objections, and introductory to them, we re- mark, — 1. That the system of slavery must be a sys- tern of horrible cruelty, follows of necessity, from the fact that two millions seven hundred thousand j human beings are held by force, and used as arti- Personal Narratives — Remarks 109 cles of property. Nothing but a heavy yoke, and an iron one, could possibly keep so many necks in the dust. That must be a constant and mighty pressure which holds so still such a vast army ; nothing could do it but the daily experience of se- verities, and the ceaseless dread and certainty of the most terrible inflictions if they should dare to toss in their chains. 2. Were there nothing else to prove it a system of monstrous cruelty, the fact that fear is the only motive with which the slave is plied during his whole existence, would be sufficient to brand it with execration as the grand tormentor of man. The slave's susceptibility of pain is the sole ful. crum on which slavery works the lever that moves him. In this it plants all its stings ; here it sinks its hot irons; cuts its deep gashes; flings its burn- ing embers, and dashes its boiling brine and liquid fire ; into this it strikes its cold flesh hooks, grap- gling irons, and instruments of nameless torture ; and by it drags him shrieking to the end of his pilgrimage. The fact that the master inflicts pain upon the slave not merely as an end to grati- fy passion, but constantly as a means of extorting labor, is enough of itself to show that the system of slavery is unmixed cruelty. 3. That the slaves must suffer frequent and terrible inflictions, follows inevitably from the character of those who direct their labor. What- ever may be the character of the slaveholders them- eelvcs, all agree that the overseers are, as a class, most abandoned, brutal, and desperate men. This is so well known and believed that any testimony to prove it seems needless. The testimony of JMr. Wirt, late Attorney General of the United States, a Virginian and a slaveholder, is as fol- lows. In his life of Patrick Henry, p. 36, speak- ing of the different classes of society in Virginia, he says, — " Last and lowest a feculum, of beings called ' overseers' — the most abject, degraded, un. principled race, always cap in hand to the dons who emploj' them, and furnishing materials for tlie exercise of their pride, insolence, and spirit of domination." Rev. Phineas Smith, of Centreville, New-York, who has resided some years at the south, says of overseers — " It need hardly be added that overseers are in general ignorant, unprincipled and cruel, and in 6uch low repute that they are not permitted to come to the tables of their employers; yet they have the constant control of all the human cattle that belong to the master. " These men arc continually advancing from their low station to the higher one of masters. These changes bring into the possession of power a class of men of whose mental and moral quali ties I have already spoken." Rev. Horace Moulto.x, of Marlboro', Massa- chusetts, who lived in Georgia several years, says of them, — " The overseers are generally loose in their mo- rals; it is the object of masters to employ those whom they think will get the most work out of their hands, — hence those who whip and tor- ment the slaves the most are in many instances called the best overseers. The masters think those whom the slaves fear the most are the best. Quite a portion of the masters employ their own slaves as overseers, or rather they are called drivers ; these are more subject to the will of the masters than the white overseers are ; some of them are as lordly as an Austrian prince, and sometimes more cruel even than the white?." That the overseers are, as a body, sensual, bru. tal, and violent men is proverbial. The tender mercies of such men 7nust be cruel. 4. The oxanership of human beings necessarily presupposes an utter disregard of their happiness. He who assumes it monopolizes their whole capi- tal, leaves them no stock on which to trade, and out of which to make happiness. Wliatever is the master's gain is the slave's loss, a loss wrested from him by the master, for the express purpose of making it his own gain ; this is the master's constant employment — forcing the slave to toil — violently wringing from him all he has and all he gets, and using it as his own ; — like the vile bird that never builds its nest from materials of its own gathering, but either drives other birds from theirs and takes possession of them, or tears them in pieces to get the means of constructing their own. This daily practice of forcibly robbing others, and habitually living on the plunder, cannot but be- get in the mind the habit of regarding the interests and happiness of those whom it robs, as of no sort of consequence in comparison with its own ; con- sequently whenever those interests and this hap. piness are in the way of its own gratification, they will be sacrificed without scruple. He who can- not see this would be unable to feel it, if it wera seen. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. Objection I.— SUCH CRUELTIES ARE INCREDIBLE. The enormities inflicted by slaveholders upon their slaves will never be discredited except by Uiosc who overlook the simple fact, that he who holds human beings as his bona fide property, re- gards ihem as property, and not as persons ; this is his permanent slate of mind toward them. He does not contemplate slaves as human beings, con- Kcquently docs not treat them as such ; and with entire indifference sees them suffer privations and writhe under blows, wliich, if inflicted upon whites, would fill him with horror and indigna- tion. He regards that as good treatment of slaves, which would seem to him insufferable abuse if practiced upon others; and would de. nounce that as a monstrous outrage and horrible cruelty, if perpretated upon white men and wo-- men, which he sees every day meted out to black slaves, without perhaps ever thinking it cruel. Accustomed all his life to regard them rather as domestic animals, to hear them stormed at, and to see them cuffed and caned; and being himself in the constant habit of treating them thus, such practices have become to him a mere matter of course, and make no impression on his mind. True, it is incredible that men should treat as chattels those whom they truly regard as human heings ; but that they should treat as chattels and working animals those whom they regard a.s such is no marvel. The common treatment of dogs, when they are in the way, is to kick them out of it ; we see them every day kicked off the side- walks, and out of shops, and on Sabbaths out of churches, — yet, as they are but dogs, these do not strike us as outrages ; yet, if we were to see men, women, and children — our neighbors and friends, kicked out of stores by merchants, or out of churches by the deacons and sexton, we should call the perpetrators inhuman wretches. We have said that slaveholders regard their slaves not as human beings, but as mere working animals, or merchandise. The whole vocabulary of slaveholders, their laws, their usages, and their entire treatment of their slaves fully establish this. The same terms are applied to slaves that are given to cattle. They are called '' stock." So when the children of slaves are spoken of pro- spectively, they are called their " increase ;" the same term that is applied to flocks and herds. So the female slaves that are mothers, are called " breeders" till past child bearing ; and often the same terms are applied to the different sexes that are applied to the males and females among cat- tle. Those who compel the labor of slaves and cattle have the same appellation, "drivers:" the names which they call them are the same and simi- ilar to those given to their horses and oxen. The laws of slave states make them property, equally with goats and swine ; they are levied upon for debt in the same way ; they are included in the same advertisements of public sales with cattle, swine, and asses; when moved from one part of the country to another, they are Iierded in droves hke cattle, and like them urged on by drivers ; their labor is compelled in the same way. They are bought and sold, and separated like cattle : when exposed for sale, their good qualities are described as jockies show off the good pointsof their horses; their strength, activity, skill, power of endurance, &c. are lauded, — and those who bid upon them examine their persons, just as purchasers inspect horses and oxen ; they open their mouths to see if their teeth are sound ; strip their backs to see if they are badly scarred, and handle their limbs and muscles to see if they are firmly knit. Like horses, they are warranted to be " sound," or to be returned to the owner if " unsound." A father gives his son a horse and a slave ; by his will he distributes among them his race-horses, hounds, game-cocks, and slaves. We leave the reader to carry out the parallel wliich we have only begun. Its details would cover many pages. That slaveholders do not practically regard slaves as human beings is abundantly shown by their own voluntary testimony. In a recent work entitled, " The South vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of Northern Abolitionists," wliich was written, we are informed, by Colonel Dayton, late member of Congress from South Carolina ; the writer, speaking of tlie awe with which the slaves regard the whites, says. — '' The northerner looks upon a band of negroes as upon so many men, but the planter or southern- er views themin a very different light.'' Extract from the speech of Mr. Summers, of Virginia, in the legislature of that state, Jan. 26, 1832. See the Richmond Whig. " When, in the sublime lessons of Christianity, he (the slaveholder) is taught to ' do unto others as he would have others do unto him,' iiK never DREAMS THAT THE DEGRADED NEGRO IS WITIIKN THE PALE OF THAT HOLY CANON." President Jefferson, in his letter to Governor Coles, of lUinois, dated Aug. 25, 1814, asserts, that slaveholders regard their slaves as brutes, in the following remarkable language. " Nursed and educated in the daily liabit of see- ing the degraded condition, both bodily and men- tal, of these unfortunate beings [the slaves], few minds have YET DOUBTED BUT THAT THEY WERE AS Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. Ill LKGITIMATE SUBJECTS OF PROPERTY AS THEIR HORSES OR CATTLE." Having rIiowh that slaveholders regard their slaves n..s mere working animals and cattle, we now proceed to show that their actual treatment of them, is worse than it would be if they were brutes. We repeat it, Slaveholders treat their SLAVES worse than THEY DO THEIR BRUTES. Who- cvcr heard of cows or sheep being deliberately tied up and beaten and lacerated till they died ? or horses coolly tortured by tho hour, till covered with mangled flesh, or of swine having their legs tied and being suspended from a tree and lacerat. ed with thongs for hours, or of hounds stretched and made fast at full length, flayed with whips, red pepper rubbed into their bleeding gashes, and hot brine dashed on to aggravate the torture ? Yet just such forms and degrees of torture are daily perpetrated upon the slaves. Now no man that knows human nature will marvel at this. Though great cruelties have always been inflicted by men upon brutes, yet incomparably the most horrid ever perpetrated, have been those of men upon their own species. Any leaf of history turn- ed over at random has proof enough of this. Every reflecting mind perceives that when men hold human beings as property, they must, from the nature of the case, treat them worse than they treat their horses and oxen. It is impossible for cattle to excite in men such tempests of fury as men excite in each other. Men are often pro- voked if their horses or hounds refuse to do, or their pigs refuse to go where they wish to drive them, but the feeling is rarely intense and never permanent. It is vexation and impatience, rather than settled rage, malignity, or revenge. If horses and dogs were intelligent beings, and still held as property, their opposition to the wishes of their ov/ners, would exasperate them immeasurably more than it would be possible for them to do, with the minds of brutes. None but little chil- dren and idiots get angry at sticks and stones that lie in their way or hurt them ; but put into sticks and stones intelligence, and will, and power of feeling and motion, while they remain as now, ar- tides of property, and what a towering rage would men be in, if bushes whipped them in the face when they walked among them, or stones rolled over tlieir toes when they climbed hills ! and what exemplary vengeance would be inflicted upon door-steps and hearth-stones, if they were to move out of their places, instead of lying still where they were put for their owners to tread upon. The greatest provocation to human nature is opposition to its will. If a man's will be re- sisted by one far below him, the provocation is vastly greater, than when it is resisted by an acknowledged superior. In the former case, it in. flames strong passions, which in the latter lie dormant. The rage of proud Haman knew no bounds against the poor Jew who would not do as he wished, and so he built a gallows for him. If the person opposing the will of another, be so far below him as to be on a level with chattels, and be actually held and used as an article of property ; pride, scorn, lust of power, rage and revenge explode together upon the hapless vie tim. The idea of property having a will, and that too in opposition to the will of its owner, and counteracting it, is a stimulant of terrible power to the most relentless human passions ; and from the nature of slavery, and the constitu- tion of the human mind, this fierce stimulant must, with various degrees of strength, act upon slaveholders almost without ceasing. The slave, however abject and crushed, is an intelligent be- ing : he has a icill, and that will cannot be anni- hilated, it will show itself; if for a moment it is smothered, like pent up fires when vent is found, it flames the fiercer. Malie intelligence property, and its manager will have his match; he is met at every turn by an opposing will, net in the form of down-right rebellion and defiance, but yet, visi- bly, an ever-opposing will. He sees it in the dissat- isfied look, and reluctant air and unwilling move- ment ; the constrained strokes of labor, the drawling tones, the slow hearing, the feigned stupidity, the sham pains and sickness, the short memory ; and he feels it every hour, in innumer. able forms, frustrating his designs by a ceaseless though perhaps invisible countermining. This unceasing opposition to the will of its ' owner,' on the part of his rational ' property,' is to the slaveholder as the hot iron to the nerve. He raves under it, and storms, and gnashes, and smites ; but the more he smites, the hotter it gets, and the more it burns him. Further, this opposition of the slave's will to his owner's, not only excites him to severity, that he may gratify his rage, but makes it necessary for him to use violence in breaking down this resistance — thus subjecting the slave to additional tortures. Tlierc is another inducement to cruel inflictions upon the slave, and a necessity for it, which docs not exist in the case of brutes. Offenders must be made an example to others, to strike them with terror. If a slave runs away and is caught, his master flogs him with terrible severity, not mere- ly to gratify his resentment, and to keep him from running away again, but as a warning to others. So in every case of disobedience, neglect, stub- bornness, unfaithfulness, indolence, insolence, theft, feigned sickness, when his directions are forgotten, or slighted, or supposed to be, or his wishes crossed, or his property injured, or left ex. posed, or his work ill-executed, the master is tempted to inflict cruelties, not merely to wreak his own vengeance upon him, and to make the 112 Olijcctions Considered — Cruelties Incredible. slave more circumspect in future, but to sustain his autliority over the other slaves, to restrain them from like practices, and to preserve his own property. A multitude of facts, illustrating the position that slaveholders treat their slaves worse than they do their cattle, will occur to all who are familiar with slavery. When cattle break through tlieir owners' inelosures and escape, if found, they are driven back and fastened in again ; and even slaveholders would execrate as a wretch, the man who should tie them up, and bruise and la- cerate them for straying away ; but when slaves that have escaped are caught, they are flogged with the most terrible severitj'. When herds of cattle are driven to market, they are suffered to go in the easiest way, each by himself; but when slaves are driven to market, they are fastened together with liandcuffs, galled bj' iron collars and chains, and thus forced to travel on foot hundreds of miles, sleeping at night in their chains. Sheep, and sometimes horned cattle are marked with their owners' initials — but this is generally done with paint, and of course pro- duces no pain. Slaves, too, are often marked with their owners' initials, but the letters are stamped into their flesh with a hot iron. Cattle are suffered to graze their pastures without stint; but the slaves are restrained in their foed to a fixed allowance. The slaveholders' horses are notoriously far better fed, more moderately work- ed, have fewer hours of labor, and longer inter- vals of rest than their slaves ; and their valuable horses are far more comfortably housed and lodged, and their stables more effectually defend- ed from the weather, than the slaves' huts. We have here merely ieg"?in a comparison, which the reader can easily carry out at length, from, the materials furnished in this work. We will, however, subjoin a few testimonies of slaveholders, and others who have resided in slave slates, expressly asserting that slaves are treated worse than brutes. The late Dr. George Buchanan, of Baltimore, Maryland, a member of the American Philosoph- ical Society, in an oration delivered in Baltimore, July 4, 1791, page 10, says : " The Africans wliom you despise, whom you more inhumanly treat than hruies, are equally capable of improvement with yourselves." The Rev. George Wiiitefiei.d, in his cele- brated letter to the slaveholders of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, written one hundred years ago, (See Benczet's Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, page 13), says: " Sure I am, it is sinful to use them as bad, nay worse than if they were brutes ; and what- ever particular exceptions there may be, (9s I would chariablty hope there are so7ne) I fear the generality of you tiiat own negroes, are liable to such a charge." Mr. Rice, of Kentucky in his speech in the Convention that formed the Constitution of that state, m 1790, says : " He [the slave] is a rational creature, reduced by the power of legislation to the state of a brute, and thereby deprived of every privilege of hu- manity. . . . The brute may steal or rob, to supply his hunger; but the slave, though in the most starving condition, dare not do either, on Ijenaliy of death, or some severe punishment.^' Rev. Horace Moulton, a minister of the Me- thodist Episcopal Church, in Marlborougli, Mass. who lived some years in Georgia, says : " The southern horses and dogs have enough to eat, and good care is taken of tliem ; but south- ern negroes — who can describe their misery and their wretchedness, their nakedness and their cruel scoiu-gings ! None but God. Sliould we whip our horses as they whip their slaves, even for small offences, we should expose ourselves to the p enalty of the law." Rev. PniNEAS Smith, Centreville, Allegany county. New York, who has resided four years in the midst of southern slavery — " Avarice and cruelty are twin sisters ; and I do not hesitate to declare before the world, as my deliberate opinion, that there is less compassion for working slaves at the south, than for working oxen at the north." Stephen Sewall, Esq. Winthrop, Maine, a member of the Congregational Church, and late agent of the Winthrop Manfacturing Company, who resided five years in Alabama, says — "I do not think that brutes, not even horses, are treated with so much cruelty as American slaves." If the preceding considerations arc insuflieicnf to remove incredulity respecting the cruelties suffered by slaves, and if northern objectors stiil say, ' We might believe sucli tilings of savages, but that civilized men, and republicans, in this Christian country, can openly and by system per- petrate such enormities, is impossible :' — to such we rep!}', that this incredulity of the people of i the free states, is not only discreditable to their intelhgcncr, but to their consistency. Who is so ignorant as not to know, or so in- credulous as to disbelieve, that the early Baptists of New England were fined, imprisoned, scourg. ed, and finally banished by our puritan fore- fathers ? — and that the Quakers were confined in dungeons, publicly whipped at the cart-tail, had their ears cut off, cleft sticks put upon their tongues, and that five of them, four men and one woman, were hung on Boston Common, for pro- pagating the sentiments of the Society of Friends ? Who discredits the fact, that the civil authorities in Massachusette, less than a hundred and fiflv Ohjectioni Considered — Cruelties Incredible. 113 veare agjo, confined in the public jail a little girl of four years old, and publicly hung the Rev. Mr. Burroughs, and eighteen other persons, mostly women, and killed another, (Giles Corey,) by ex- tending him upon liis back, and piling weights upon his breast till he was crushed to death* — and tliis for no other reason than that these men and women, and this little child, were accused by others of beic itching them. Even the children in Connecticut, know that Uie following was once a law of that state : " No food or lodging shall be allowed to a Quaker. If any person turns Quaker, he shall be banished, and not be suffered to return on pain of death." These objectors can readily believe the fact, that in the city of New York, less than a hundred years since, thirteen persons were publicly burn- ed to death, over a slow fire : and that the Icgis- lature of tlie same State took under its paternal care tiie African slave-trade, and declared that " all encouragement should be given to tlie direct importation of slaves; that all smuggling of slaves should be condemned, as an eminent dis- couragement to the fair trader." They do not call in question the fact that the African slave-trade was carried on from the ports of the free states till within thirty years; that even members of the Society of Friends were actively engaged in it, shortly before the revolu- tionary war ;t that as late as 1807, no less than fifty-nine of the vessels engaged in that trade, were sent out from the little state of Rhode Island, which had then onlj^ about seventy thou- sand inliabitants ; tliat among those most largely engaged in those foul crimes, are the men v/hom the people of Rhode Island delight to honor : that the man who dipped most deeply in tliat trade of blood (James De Wolf,) and amassed a most princely fortune by it, was not long since their senator in Congress ; and another, who was cap- tain of one of his vessels, was recently Lieutenant Governor of the state. They can believe, too, all the horrors of the middle passage, the chaing, suffocation, maim- ings, stranglings, starvation, drownings, and cold blooded murders, atrocities perpetrated on board these slave-ship? by their own citizens, perhaps by their own townsmen and neighbors — possibly by their own fathers : but oh ! they ' can't believe that the slavdholders can be so hard-hearted to- wards their slaves as to treat them with great cruelty.' They can believe that His Holiness the Pope, with his cardinals, bishops and priests, have * Judgfi Scwall, of Mass. in liis dian', describing this horrible scene, says that wlipn the tongue of the poor suf- futer had, in the extremity of his dying agony, protruded (rem his mouth, a person in attendance tools his cane and thrust it hack into his nioutii. t See Life and Travels of John Woolman, page 92. 8 tortured, broken on the wheel, and burned to death thousands of Protestants — that eighty thou- sand of the Anabaptists were slaughtered in Ger- many — that hundreds of thousands of the blame- less Waldenses, Huguenots and Lollards, wert! torn in pieces by the most titled dignitaries of clmrch and state, and iha.t almost every professed- ly Christian sect, has, at some period of its histori/. persecuted unto blood those who dissented from their creed. They can believe, also, that in Bos- ton, New York, Utica, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Alton, and in scores of other cities and villages of the free states, ' gentlemen of property and standing,' led on by civil officers, by members of state legislatures, and of Congress, by judges and attorneys-general, by editors of newspa- pers, and by professed ministers of the gospel, have organized mobs, broken up lawful meetings of peaceable citizens, committed assault and bat- tery upon their persons, knocked them down with stones, led them about with ropes, dragged them from their beds at midnight, gagged and forced them into vehicles, and driven them into unfre- quented places, and there tormented and dis- figured them; — that they have rifled their houses, made bonfires of their furniture in the streets, burned to the ground, or torn in pieces the halls or churches in which they were assembled — at- tacked them with deadly weapons, stabbed some, shot others, and killed ONE. They can believe all this — and further, that a majority of the citizens in the places where these outrages have been committed, connived at them ; and by refusing to indict the perpetrators, or, if they were in- dicted, by combining to secure their acquittal, and rejoicing in it, have publicly adopted these felonies as their own. All these things they can believe without hesitation, and that they have even been done by their own acquaintances, neighbors, relatives ; perhaps those with whom they interchange courtesies, those for whom they vote, or to whose salaries they contribute — but yet, oh I they can never believe that slaveholders inflict cruelties upon their slaves ! They can give full credence to the kidnapping, imprisonment, and deliberate murder of William Morgan, and that by men of high standing in society ; they can believe that this deed was aided and abetted, and the murderers screened from justice, by a large number of influential per- sons, who were virtually accomplices, either be- fore or after the fact ; and tliat this combination was so effectual, as successfully to defy and tri- umph over the combined powers of the govern- ment ; — yet that those who constantly rob men of their time, liberty, and wages, and all their rights, should rob them of bits of flesh, and oc- casionally of a tooth, make their backs bleed, and put fetters on their legs, is too moustroua to b» 114 Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. credited! Further these same persons, who 'can't beheve' that slaveholders are so iron-hearted as to ill-treat their slaves, believe that the very elite of these slaveholders, those most highly es- teemed and honored among them, are continu- ally daring each other to mortal conflict, and in the presence of mutual friends, taking deadly aim at each other's hearts, with settled purpose to kill, if possible. That among the most dis- tinguished governors of slave states, among their most celebrated judges, senators, and representa- tives in Congress, there is hardly one, who has not either killed, or tried to kill, or aided and abetted his friends in trying to kill, one or more individuals. That pistols, dirks, bowie knives, or other instruments of death, are generally carried throughout the slave states — and that deadly affrays with them, in the streets of their cities and villages, are matters of daily occurrence ; that the sons of slaveholders in southern colleges, bully, threaten, and fire upon their teachers, and their teachers upon them ; that during the last summer, in the most celebrated seat of science and literature in the south, the University of Vir- ginia, the professors were attacked by more than seventy armed students, and, in the words of a Virginia paper, were obliged ' to conceal them- selves from their fury ;' also that almost all the riots and violence that occur in northern col- leges, are produced by the turbulence and lawless passions of southern students. That such are the furious passions of slaveholders, no conside- rations of personal respect, none for the proprie- ties of life, none for the honor of our national legislature, none for the character of our country abroad, can restrain the slaveholding members of Congress from the most disgraceful personal en- counters on the floor of our nation's legislature — smiting their fists in each other's faces, throttling, and even kicking and trying to gouge each other — that even during the session of the Congress just closed, no less than six slaveholders, taking fire at words spoken in debate, have either rushed at each other's throats, or kicked, or struck, or attempted to knock each other down ; and that in all these instances, they would doubtless have killed each other, if their friends had not separat- ed them. Further, they know full well, these were not insignificant, vulgar blackguards, elect- ed because they were the head bullies and bottle- holders in a boxing ring, or because their consti- tuents went drunk to the ballot box ; but they were some of the most conspicuous members of the House — one of them a former speaker. Our newspapers are full of these and similar daily occurrences among slaveholders, copied verbatim from their own accounts of them in their own papers, and all this we fully credit ; no man is simpleton enough to cry out, ' Oh, I can't believe that slaveholders do such things,' — and yet when we turn to the treatment wliich these men mete out to their slaves, and show that they are in the habitual practice of striking, kick- ing, knocking down and shooting them as .veil as each other — the look of blank incredulity that comes over northern dough-faces, is a study for a painter : and then the sentimental outcry, with eyes and hands uplifted, ' Oh, indeed, I can't be- lieve the slaveholders are so cruel to their slaves.' Most amiable and touching charity ! Truly, of all Yankee notions and free state products, there is nothing like a ' dough face ' — the great north- ern staple for the southern market— '-made to order,' in any quantity, and always on hand. 'Dough faces!' Thanks to a slaveholder's con- tempt for the name, with its immortality of truth, infamy and scorn.* Though the people of the free states affect to ~ disbelieve the cruelties perpetrated upon the slaves, yet slaveholders believe each other guilty of them, and speak of them with the utmost free- dom. If slaveholders disbelieve any statement of cruelty inflicted upon a slave, it is not on ac- count of its enormity. The traveler at the south will hear in Delaware, and in all parts of Mary- land and Virginia, from the lips of slaveholders statements of the most horrible cruelties sufi'ered by the s\a.vcsfarther south, in theCarolinasand Geor- gia ; when he finds himself in those states he will hear similar accounts about the treatment of the slaves in Florida and Louisiana ; and in Missou- ri, Kentucky, and Tennessee he will hear of the tragedies enacted on the plantations in Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi. Since Anti-Slavery Societies have been m operation, and slaveholders have found themselves on trial before the world, and put upon their good behavior, northern slaveholders have grown cautious, and now often substitute denials and set defences, for the volun- tary testimony about cruelty in the far south, which, before that period, was given with entire freedom. Still, however, occasionally the 'truth will out,' as the reader will see by-tj»e following testimony of an East Tennessee newspaper, in which, speaking of the droves of slaves taken « from the upper country to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, &c., the editor says, they are 'travel- ing to a region where their condition throusfh time WILL BE SECOND ONLY TO THAT OF THE WRETCHED CREATURES ix HELL.' Scc " Maryvillfi Intelli- gencer," of Oct. 4, 1835. Distant cruelties and cruelties long past, have been till recently, favor- ite topics with slaveholders. They have not only been ready to acknowledge that their fathers * "Doe face," which owes its pateniity to John Ran dolph, age has mellowed into "dough face" — a cog nonien quite as expressive and Appropriate, if not as clasr ical Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. 115 have exercised great cruelty toward their slaves, but have voluntarily, in their official acts, made proclamation of it and entered it on their public records. The Legislature of North Carolina, in 1798, branded the successive legislatures of that state for more than thirty years previous, with the infamy of treatment towards their slaves, which they pronounce to be ' disgraceful to humanity, and degrading in the highest degree to the laws and principles of a free. Christian, and enlightened country.' This treatment was the enactment and perpetuation of a most barbarous and cruel law. But enough. As the objector can and does believe all the preceding facts, if he still ' can't believe ' as to the cruelties of slavehold- ers, it would be barbarous to tantalize his inca- pacity either with evidence or argument. Let liim have the benefit of the act in such case made and provided. Having showTi that the mcredulity of the ob- jector respecting the cruelty inflicted upon the slaves, is discreditable to his consistency, we now proceed to show that it is equally so to his intelligence. Whoever disbelieves the foregoing statements of cruelties, on the ground of their enormity, pro- claims his own ignorance of the nature and histo- ry of man. What ! incredulous about the atro- cities perpetrated by those who hold human be- ings as property, to be used for their pleasure, when history herself has done little else m record- ing human deeds, than to dip her blank chart in the blood shed by arbitrary power, and unfold to human gaze the great red scroll ? That cruelty is the natural effect of arbitrary power, has been the result of all experience, and the voice of univer- sal testimony since the world began. Shall hu- man nature's axioms, six thousand years old, go for -nothing? Are the combined product of hu- man experience, and the concurrent records of human character, to be set down as ' old wives' fables ?' To disbelieve that arbitrary power na- turally and habitually perpetrates cruelties, where it can do it with impunity, is not only ignorance of man, but of things. It is to be blind to innu- merable proofs which are before every man's eyes ; proofs that are stereot3rped in the very words and phrases that are on every one's lips. Take for example the words despot and despotic. Despot, signifies etymologically, merely one who possesses arbitrary power, and at first, it was used to desig- nate those alone who possessed unlimited power over human beings, entirely irrespective of the way in which they exercised it, whether merciful- ly or cruelly. But the fact, that those who pos- sessed such power, made their subjects their vic- tims, has wrought a total change in the popular meaning of the word. It now signifies, in com- mon parlance, not one who possesses unlimited power over others, but one who exercises the power that he has,whether little or much, cruelly. So des- potic, instead of meaning what it once did, some, thing pertaining to the possess/on of unlimited pow- er, signifies something pertaining to the capricious, unmerciful and relentless exercise of such power. The word tyrant, is another example — former- ly it implied merely a possession of arbitrary power, but from the invariable abuse of such power by its possessors, the proper and entire meaning of the word is lost, and it now signifies merely one who exercises power to the injury of others. The words t}Tannical and tyranny fol- low the same analogy. So the word arbitrary ; which formerly implied that which pertains to the will of one, independently of others ; but from the fact that those who had no restraint upon their wills, were invariably capricious, unreason- able and oppressive, these words convey accu- rately the present sense of arbitrary, when ap- plied to a person. How can the objector persist in disbelieving that cruelty is the natural effect of arbitrary pow- er, when the very words of every day, rise up on his lips in testimony against him — words which once signified the ?nere possession of arbitrary power, but have lost their meaning, and now s'g- nify merely its cruel exercise ; because such a use of it has been proved by the experience of the world, to be inseparable from its possession — words now frigid with horror, and never used fven by the objector without feeling a cold chill run over him. Arbitrary power is to the mind what alcohol is to the body ; it intoxicates. Man loves power. It is perhaps the strongest human passion ; and the more absolute the power, the stronger the de- sire for it ; and the more it is desired, the more its exercise is enjoyed : this enjoyment is to human na . ture a fearful temptation, — generally aniDvermatch for it. Hence it is true, with hardly an exception, that arbitrary power is abused in proportion as it is desired. The fact that a person intensely de. sires power over others, without restraint, shows the absolute necessity of restraint. ^VTiat vvoman would marry a man who made it a condition that he should have the power to divorce her whenever he pleased ? Oh ! he might never wish to exer- cise it, but the power he would have ! No wo. man, not stark mad, would trust her happiness in such hands. Would a fatlier apprentice his son to a master, who insisted that his power over the lau should be absolute 1 Tlie master might perhaps, never toish to commit a battery upon the boy, but if he should, he insists upon having full swing I He who would leave his son in the clutches of such a wretch, would be bled and blistered for a lunatic as , soon as his friends could get their hands upon him. 116 Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. The possession of power, even when greatly rc- Blrained, is sucli a fiery stimulant, that its lodge- ment in human hands is always perilous. Give men the handling of immense sums of money, and all the eyes of Argus and the hands of Briarcus can hardly prevent embezzlement. The mutual and ceaseless aceusations of the t-.vo great political parties in this country, show the universal belief that this tendency of human nature to abuse power, is so strong, that even the most powerful legal restraints arc insufficient for its safe custody. From congress and state legisla- tures down to grog-shop caucuses and street- wranglings, each party keeps up an incessant din about abuses of power. Hardly an officer, either of the general or state governments, from the President down to the ten thousand postmasters, and from governors to the fifty thousand consta- bles, escapes the charge of ' abuse of power. ^ ' Op- pression,' ' Extortion,' ' Venality,' ' Bribery,' •Corruption,' 'Perjury,' 'Misrule,' 'Spoils,' 'De- falcation,' stand on every newspaper. Now with. out any estimate of the lies told in these mu- tual charges, there is truth enough to make each party ready to believe of the other, and of then- best men too, any abuse of power, however mon- Btrous. As is the State, so is the Church. From General Conferences to circuit preachers ; and from General Assemblies to church sessions, abuses of power spring up as weeds from the dungliill. All legal restraints are framed upon the pre- sumption, that men will abuse their power if not hemmed in by them. This lies at the bottom of all those checks and balances contrived for keep- ing governments upon their centres. If there is among human convictions one that is invariable and universal, it is, that when men possess unre- strained power over others, over their time, choice, conscience, persons, votes, or means of subsist- ence, they are under great temptations to abuse it ; and that the intensity with which such power is desired, generally measures the certainty and the degree of its abuse. That American slaveholders possess a power over their slaves which is virtually absolute, none v,'ill deny.* That they desire this absolute pow- er, is shown from the fact of their holding and exercising it, and making laws to confirm and en- large it. That the desire to possess this power, every tittle of it,, is intense, is proved by the fact, that slaveholders cling to it with such obstinate * The following extracts from the laws of slave-states are proofs sufficinnt. "ThP slave is KNTIRELY subject to the AVILL of his uiastor." — Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 2T3. " Slaves shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and ad- jud^'ed in law to bo chattels pergonal, in the liand.s of their owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators and assigns, to all intents, constrictions, and imir pos-Es, wiiATsoEVKR." — Lawj of South Carolina, 2 Brcv. Dig. 2-i9 ; Prince's Digest, 446, &c. tenacity, as well as by all their doings and sayings, their threats, cursings and gnashings against all who denounce tlie exercise of such power as usurpation and outrage, and counsel its immediate abrogation. From the nature of the case — from the laws of mind, such power, so intensely desired, griped with such a death. clutch, and with such fierce spurnings of all curtailment or restraint, eannot but be abused. Privations and inflictions must be its natural, habitual products, with ever and anon, terror, torture, and despair let loose to do their worst upon the helpless victims. Though power over others is in every case lia- ble to be used to their injury, yet, in almost all cases, the subject individual is shielded from great outrages by strong safeguards. If he have talents, or learning, or wealth, or office, or personal re- spectability, or influential friends, these, with the protection of law and the rights of citizenship, stand round him as a body guard : and even if he lacked all these, 3'ct, had he the same color, fea- tures, form, dialect, habits, and associations with the privileged caste of society, he would find in them a shield from many injuries, which would be invited, if in these respects he differed widely from the rest of the community, and was on that account regarded with disgust and aversion. This is the condition of the slave ; not only is he de- prived of the artificial safeguards of the law, but has none of those natural safeguards enume- rated above, which are a protection to others. But not only is the slave destitute of those peculiari- ties, habits, tastes, and acquisitions, which b}' as similating the possessor to the rest of the commu- nity, excite their interest in him, and thus, in a measure, secure for him their protection ; but he possesses those peculiarities of bodily organization which are looked upon with deep disgust, con- tempt, prejudice, and aversion. Besides this, con- stant contact with the ignorance and stupidity of the slaves, their filth, rags, and nakedness; their cowering air, servile employments, repulsive food, and squalid hovels, their purchase and sale, and use as brutes — all these associations, constantly mingling and circulating in the minds of slave, holders, and invctcrated by the hourly irritations which must assail all who use human beings as things, produce in them a permanent state of feel- ing toward the slave, made up of repulsion and settled ill-will. When we add to this the corro- sions produced by the petty thefts of slaves, the necessity of constant watching, their reluctant service, and indifference to their master's interests, their ill-concealed aversion to him, and spurning of his authority ; and finally, that fact, as old as human nature, that men always hate those whom they oppress, and oppress those whom they hate, thus oppression and hatred mutually begclti g and Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. 117 perpetuating each other — and we have a raging c ftiupound of licry elements and disturbing forces, sj stimulating and inflaming tlie mind of the slaveholder against the slave, that it cannot but break forth upon him with desolating fury. To deny that cruelty is the spontaneous and uniform product of arbitrary power, and tliat the natural and controlling tendency of such power is to make its possessor cruel, oppressive, and re- vengeful towards those who are subjected to his control, is, we repeat, to set at nought the com- bined experience of the human race, to invalidate its testimony, and to reverse its decisions from time immemorial. A volume might be filled with the testimony of American slaveholders alone, to the truth of the preceding position. We subjoin a few illus- trations, and first, th'e memorable declaration of President Jefferson, who lived and died a slave- holder. It has been published a thousand times, and will live forever. In his " Notes on Virginia," sixth Philadelphia edition, p. 251, he says, — " The WHOLE COMMERCE between master and slave, is a PERPETUAL EXERCISE of the most boisterous passions, the most unremit. ting DESPOTISM on tiie one part, and degrad- ing submission on the other The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, GIVES LOOSE TO THE WORST OF PASSIONS; and thus nursed, ed- ucated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities." Hon. Lewis Summers, Judge of the General Court of Virginia, and a slaveholder, said in a speech before the Virginia legislature in 1832 ; (see Richmond Whig of Jan. 26, 1832,) " A slave population exercises the most perni- cious influence upon the manners, habits an cha- racter, of those among whom it exists. Lisping infancy learns the vocabulary of abusive epithets, and struts the embryo tyrant of its little domain. The consciousness of superior destiny takes pos- session of his mind at its earliest dawning, and love of power and rule, ' grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.' Unless en- abled to rise above the operation of those powerful causes, he enters the world with miserable notions of self-importance, and under the government of an unbridled temper." The late Judge Tucker of Virginia, a slave- holder, and Professor of Law in the University of William and Mary, in his " Letter to a Member of the Virginia Legislature," 1801, says, — " I say nothing of the baneful effects of slavery on our moral character, because I know you have been long sensible of this point." The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, consisting of all the clergy of that de- nomination in those states, with a lay representa- tion from the churches, most, if not all of whom arc slaveholders, published a report on slavery in 1834, from which the following is an extract. " Those only who have the management of ecr. vants, know what the hardening effect of it is upon their own feelings towards them. There is no necessity to dwell on this point, as all owners and managers fully understand it. He who com mcnces to manage them with tenderness and with a willingness to favor them in every way, must be watcJifui, otherwise he will settle down in indiffer ence, if not severity." General William H. Harrison, now of Ohio, son of the late Governor Harrison of Virginia, a slaveholder, while minister from the United States to the Republic of Colombia, wrote a letter to General Simon Bolivar, then President of that Republic, just as he was about assuming despotic power. The letter is dated Bogota, Sept. 22, 1826. The following is an extract. " From a knowledge of your own disposition and present feelings, your excellency will not be willing to believe that you could ever be brought to an act of tyranny, or even to execute justice with unnecessary rigor. But trust me. sir, there is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destrue- tive of the noblest and finest feelings of our na- ture than the exercise of unlimited power. The man, who in the beginning of such a career, might shudder at the idea of taking away the life of a fellow-being, might soon have his conscience so seared by the repetition of crime, that the agonies of his murdered victims might become music to his soul, and the drippings of the scaffold afford blood to swim in. History is full of such excesses." William H. Fitzhugh, Esq. of Virginia, a slave- holder, says, — " Slavery, in its mildest form, is cruel and unnatural ; its injurious effects on our morals and habits are mutually felt." Hon. Samuel S. Nicholas, late Judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and a slaveholder, in a speech before the legislature of that state, Jan. 1837, says, — •' The deliberate convictions of the most ma- tured consideration I can give the subject, are, that the institution of slavery is a most serious in- jury to the habits, manners and morals of our white population — that it leads to sloth, indolence, dissipation, and vice." Dr. Thomas Cooper, late President of the Col- lege of South Carolina, in a note to his edition of the "Institutes of Justinian," page 413, says, — " All absolute power has a direct tendency, not only to detract from the happiness of the persona who are subject to it, but to deprave the good qualities of (hose who possess it the whole history of human nature, in the present and every former age, will justify me in saying that such is the tendency of power on the one Iiand and slavery on the other." A South Carolina slaveholder, whose name is with the executive committee of the Am. A. S. Society, says, in a letter, dated April 4, 1838: — •' I think it (slavery) ruinous to the temper and 118 Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. to our spiritual life ; it is a tiiorn in the flesh, for ever ami for ever goading us on to say and to do what the Eternal God cannot but be displeased with. I speak from experience, and oh ! my de. sire is to be delivered from it." Monsieur C. C. Robin, who was a resident of Louisiana from 1802 to 1806, published a work on that country ; in which, speaking of the effect of slaveholding on masters and their children, he says : — "The young Creoles make the negroes who surround them the play-things of their whims : they flog, for pastime, those of tlicir own age, just as their fathers flog the others at their will. These young Creoles, arrived at the ago in which tlie passions are impetuous, do not know how to bear contradiction; they will have every thing done which they command, possible or not ; and in de- fault of this, they avenge their offended pride by multiplied punishments." Dr. George Buchanan, of Baltimore, Maryland, memher of the American Philosophical Society, in an oration at Baltimore, July 4, 1791, said : — " For such are the effects of subjecting man to slavery, that it destroys every hunia7ie principle, vitiates the mind, instils ideas of unlawful cruel- ties, and eventually subverts the springs of govern- ment." — BuclianarCs Oration, p. 12. President Edwards the younger, in a sermon before the Comiecticiit Abolition Society, in 1791, pajfe 8, says : — " Slavery has a most direct tendency to liaug'ii- tiness, and a domineering spirit and conduct in the proprietors of the slaves, in their children, and in all who have the control of them. A man who has been bred up in domineering over negroes, can scarcely avoid contracting such a habit of haughtiness and domination as will express itself in his general treatment of mankind, whether in his private capacity, or in any office, civil or mili- tary, with which he may be invested." The celebrated Montesquieu, in his " Spirit of the Laws," thus describes the effect of slave- holding upon the master : — "The master contracts all sorts of bad habits ; and becomes haughty, passionate, obdurate, vin. dictive, voluptuous, and cruel." WiLBERFORCE, in his spceeh at the anniversary of the London Anti-Slavery Society, in March, 1828, said :— " It is utterly impossible that they who live in the administration of the petty despotism of a slave community, whose minds have been warped and polluted by that contamination, should not lose that respect for their fellow creatures over whom they tyrannize, which is essential in the nature and moral being of man, to rescue them from the abuse of power over their prostrate fellow crea- tures." In the great debate, in the British Parliament, •n the African slave-trade, Mr. Wiiitbread said : " Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the best." But we need not multiply proofs to establish our position : it is sustained by the concurrent testimony of sages, philosophers, poets, statesmen, and moralists, in every j)eriod of the world ; and who can marvel that those in all ages who have wisel}' pondered men and things, should be unani- mous in such testimony, when the history of arbi. trary power has come down to us from the begin- ning of time, struggling through heaps of slain, and trailing her parchments in blood. Time would fail to begin with the first despot and track down the carnage step by step. All nations, all ages, ail climes crowd forward as wit. nesses, v/iili their scars, and wounds, and dying agonies. But to survey a multitude bewilders ; let us look at a single nation. We instance Rome ; both be- cause its history is more generally known, and because it furnishes a larger proportion of in- stances, in which arbitrary power was exercised with comparative mildness, than any other nation ancient or modern. And yet, her whole exist, enee was a tragedy, every actor was an cxecu- tioner, the curtain rose amidst shrieks and fell up- on corpses, and the only shifting of the scenes was from blood to blood. The whole world stood aghast, as under sentence of death, awaiting exe- cution, and all nations and tongues were driven, with her own citizens, as sheep to the slaughter. Of her seven kings, her hundreds of consuls, tri bancs, decemvirs, and dictators, and her fifty em perors, there is hardly one whose name has come down to us unstained by horrible abuses of power ; and that too, notwithstanding we have mere shreds of the history of many of them, owing to their antiquity, or to the perturbed times in which they lived ; and these shreds gathered from the records of their own partial countrymen, who wrote and sung their praises. What docs this prove ? Not that the Romans were worse than other men, nor that their rulers were worse than other Romans, for history does not furnish nobler models of natural character than many of those same rulers, when first invested with arbitrary power. Neither was it mainly because the mar- tial enterprise of the earlier Romans and the gross sensuality of the later, hardened their hearts to human suffering. In both periods of Roman his tory, and in both these classes, we find men, the keen sympathies, generosity, and benevolence of whose general character embalmed their names in the grateful memories of multitudes. They were human biings, and possessed power without restraint — this unravels the mystery. Who has not heard of the Emperor Trajan, of his moderation, his clemency, his gushing sym- pathies, his forgiveness of injuries and forgetful ncss of self, his tearing in pieces his own robe, to furnish bandages for the wounded — called by the whole world in his day, " the best emperor of Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. 119 Rome ;" and so affectionately regarded by his sub- jeets, that, ever afterwards, in blessing his suc- ceasors upon their accession to power, they al- ways said, " May you have the virtue and good- ness of Trajan I" yet the deadly conflict of gladia- tors who are trained to kill each other, to make sport for the spectators, furnished his chief pas- time. At one time he kept up those spectacles for 123 days in succession. In the tortures which he inflicted on Cliristians, fire and poison, dag- gers and dungeons, wild beasts and serpents, and the rack, did their worst. He threw into the sea, Clemens, the venerable bishop of Rome, with an anchor about his neck ; and tossed to the famish- ing lions in the amphitheatre the aged Ignatius. Pliny the younger, who was proconsul under Trajan, may well be mentioned in connection with the emperor, as a striking illustration of the truth, that goodness and aniiablene?s towards one class of men is often turned into cruelty towards another. History can hardly show a more gentle and lovely character than Pliny. While pleading at the bar, he always sought out the grievances of the poorest and most despised persons, entered into their wrongs with his whole soul, and never took a fee. Who can read his admirable letters without being touched by their tenderness and warmed by their benignity and philanthropy : and yet, this tender-hearted Pliny coolly plied with ex- cruciating torture two spotless females, who had served as deaconesses in the Christian church, hoping to extort from them matter of accusation against the Christians. He commanded Christians to abjure their faith, invoke the gods, pour out liba- tions to the statues of the emperor, burn incense to idols, and curse Christ. If they refused, he or- dered them to execution. Who has not heard of the Emperor Titus — so beloved for his mild virtues and compassionate regard for the suffering, that he was named " The Delight of Mankind ;" so tender of the lives of his subjects that he took the office of high priest, that his hands might never be defiled with blood ; and was heard to declare, with tears, that he had ra- ther die than put another to death. So intent upon making others happy, tliat when once about to retire to sleep, and not being able to recall any particular act of beneficence performed during the day, he cried out in anguish, " Alas ! I have lost a day !" And, finally, whom the learned Kennet, in his Roman Antiquities, characterizes as " the only prince in the world that has the cha- racter of never doing an ill action." Yet, wit- nessing the mortal combats of the captives taken in war, kiUing each other in the amphitheatre, amidst the acclamations of the populace, was a favorite amusement with Titus. At one time he exhibited shows of gladiators, which lasted one hundred days, during which the amphitheatre was flooded with human blood. At another of his public exhibitions he caused five thousand wild beasts to be baited in the amphitheatre. During the siege of Jerusalem, he set ambushes to seize the famishing Jews, who stole out of the city by night to glean food in the valleys : these he would first dreadfully scourge, then torment them w ith all conceivable tortures, and, at last, crucify them be- fore the wall of the city. According to Josephus, not less than five hundred a day were thus tormented. And when many of the Jews, frantic with famine, deserted to the Romans, Titus cut off their hands and drove them back. After the destruction of Jerusalem, he dragged to Rome one hundred thousand captives, sold them as slaves, and scat- tered them th'rough every province of the empire. The kindness, condescension, and forbearance of Adrian were proverbial ; he was one of the most eloquent orators of his age ; and when pleading the cause of injured innocence, would melt and overwhelm the auditors by the pathos of his appeals. It was his constant maxim, that he was an Emperor, not for his own good, but for the benefit of his fellow creatures. He stoop- ed to relieve the wants of the meanest of his sub- jects, and would peril his life by visiting them when sick of infectious diseases ; he prohibited, by law, masters from killing their slaves, gave to slaves legal trial, and exempted them from tor- ture ; yet towards certain individuals and classes, he showed himself a monster of cruelty. He prided himself on his knowledge of architecture, and ordered to execution the most celebrated architect of Rome, because he had criticised one of the Emperor's designs. He banislied all the Jews from their native land, and drove them to the ends of the earth ; and unloosed the blood- hounds of persecution to rend in pieces his Christian subjects. ' The gentleness and benignity of the Emperor Aurelius, have been celebrated in story and song. History says of him, 'Nothing could quench his desire of being a blessing to mankind ;' and Pope's eulogy of him is in the mouth of every school- boy — ' Like good Aurelius, let him reign ;' and yet, ' good Aurelius,' lifted the flood gates of the fourth, and one of the most terrible persecutions against Cliristians that ever raged. He sent or- ders into different parts of his empire, to have the Christians murdered who would not deny Christ. The blameless Polycarp, trembling under the weight of a hundred years, was dragged to the stake and burned to ashes. Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, at the age of ninety, was dragged through the streets, beaten, stoned, trampled upon by the soldiers, and loft to perish. Tender virgins were put into nets, and thrown to infuriated wild bulls ; 120 Objections Considered — Cruelties Incredible. others were fastened in red hot iron chairs; and venerable matrons were thrown to be devoured by dogs. Constantino the Great has been the admiration of Christendom for his virtues. The early Chris, tian writers adorn his justice, benevolence and piety with the most exalted eulogry. He was bap- tized, and admitted to the Christian church. He abrogated Paganism, and made Christianity the religion of his empire ; he attended the councils of the early fathers of the church, consulted with the bishops, and devoted himself with the most untiring zeal to the propagation of Christianity, and to the promotion of peace and love among its professors ; he convened the Council of Nice, to settle disputes which had long distracted the church, appeared in the assembly with admirable modesty and temper, moderated the heats of the contending parties, implored them to exercise mutual forbearance, and exhorted them to love unfeigned, to forgive one another, as they hoped to be forgiven by Christ. Who would not think it uncharitable to accuse such a man of barbarity in the exercise of power ? — and yet he drove Arius and his associates into banishment, for opinion's sake, denounced death against all with whom his books should afterwards be found, and prohibited, on pain of death, the exercise, how- ever peaceably, of the functions of any other re- ligion than Christianity. In a fit of jealousy and rage, he ordered his innocent son, Crispus, to execution, without granting him a hearing ; and upon finding him innocent, killed his own wife, who had falsely accused him. To the preceding may be added Theodosius the Great, the last Roman emperor before the division of the empire. He was a member of the Christian church, and in his zeal against paganism, and what he deemed heresy, surpassed all who were before him. The Christian writers of his time speak of him as a most illustrious model of justice, generosity, magnanimity, benevolence, and every virtue. And yet Theodosius denounced capital punishments against those who held ' heretical' opinions, and commanded inter-marriage between cousins to be punished by burning the parties alive. On hraring that the people of Antioch had demolished the statues set up in that city, in honor of himself, and had threatened the gov- ernor, he flew into a transport of fury, ordered the city to be laid in ashes, and all the inhabitants to be slaughtered ; and upon hearing of a resist- ance to his authority in Thessalonica, in which one of his lieutenants was killed, he instantly or- dered a general massacre of the inhabitants ; and in obedience to his command, seven thousand men, women and children were butchered in the space of three hours. The foregoing are a few of many instances in the history of Rome, and of a countless m altitude in the history of the world, illustrating the truth, that the lodgement of arbitrary power, in the best human hands, is always a fearfully perilous ex- periment ; that the mildest tempers, the mosthu mane and benevolent dispositions, the most blameless and conscientious previous life, with the most rigorous habits of justice, are no securi- ty, that, in a moment of temptation, the possess- ors of such power will not make their subjects their victims ; illustrating also the truth, that, while men may exhibit nothing but honor, hon- esty, mildness, justice, and generosity, in their intercourse with those of their own grade, or lan- guage, or nation, or hue, they may practice towards others, for whom they have contempt and aversion, the most revolting meanness, per- petrate robbery unceasingly, and inflict the se- verest privations, and the most barbarous cruel- ties. But this is not all : history is full of exam- pies, showing not only the effects of arbitrary power on its victims, but its terrible reaction on those who exercise it ; blunting their sympathies, and hardening to adamant their hearts toward them, at least, if not toward the human race gen- erally. This is shown in the fact, that almost every tyrant in the history of the world, has en- t-ered upon the exercise of absolute power with comparative moderation ; multitudes of them witli marked forbearance and mildness, and not a few with the most signal condescension, mag- nanimity, gentleness and compassion. Among these last are included those who afterwards be- came the bloodiest monsters that ever cursed the earth. Of the Roman Emperors, almost every one of whom perpetrated the most barbarous atrocities, Vitellius seems to have been the only one who cruelly exercised his power from the outlet. Most of the other emperors, sprung up into fiends in the hot.bed of arbitrary power. If they had not been plied with its fiery stimulants, but Iiad lived imder the legal restraints of other men, instead of going to the grave imder the curses of their generation, multitudes might have called them blessed. The moderation which has generally distin- guished absolute monarchs at the commencement of their reigns, was doubtless in some cases as- sumed from policy ; in the greater number, how- ever, as is manifest from their history, it has been the natural workings of minds held in check by previous associations, and not yet hardened into habits of cruelty, by being accustomed to the ex- ercise of power without restraint. But as those associations have weakened, and the wielding of uncontrolled sway has become a habit, like other evil doers, they liavc, in the expressive language of Scripture, 'waxed worse and worse.' For eighteen hundred years an involuntary Ohjeciions Considered — Slaveholders' Denial. 121 Ktiudder hag nin over the human race, at tho mention of the name of Nero; yet, at the com- mencement of his reign, he burst into tears when called upon to sign the death-warrant of a crim- inal, and exclaimed, 'Oh, that I had never learn- ed to write " His mildness and magnanimity won the aflections of his subjects ; and it was not till the poison of absolute power had worked with- in his nature for years, that it swelled him into a monster. Tiberius, Claudius, and Caligula, began the exercise of their power with singular forbearance, and each grew into a prodigy of cruelty. So averse was Caligula to bloodshed, that he refused to looK at a list of conspirators against his own life, which was handed to him ; yet afterwards, a more cruel wretch never wielded a sceptre. In his thir^* for slaughter, he wished all the necks in iioine one, that he might cut it off at a blow. Doinitian, at the commencement of liis reign, carried his abliorrence of cruelty to such lengths, that he forbad the sacrificing of oxen, and would sit whole days on the judgment-seat, reversing the unjust decisions of corrupt judges ; yet after- wards, he suqjassed even Nero in cruelty. The latter was content to torture and kill by proxy, and without being a spectator; but Domitian could not be denied the luxury of seeing his vic- tims writlie, and hearing them shriek ; and often with his own hand directed the instrument of torLure, especially when some illustrious senator or patrician was to be killed by piece-meal. Commodus began with gentleness and conde- scension, but soon became a terror and a scourge, outstripping in his atrocities most of his prede- cessors. Maximin too,was just and generous when first invested with power, but afterwards rioted m slaughter with the relish of a fiend. History has well said of this monarch, ' the change in his disposition may readily serve to show how dan- gerous a thing is power, that could transform a person of such rigid virtues into such a monster.' Instances almost innumerable might be fur nished in the history of every age, illustrating the blunting of sympathies, and the total trans, formations of character wrought in individuals by the exercise of arbitrary power. Not to detain the reader with long details, let a single instance suffice. Perhaps no man has lived in modern times, whose name excites such horror as that of Robes- pierre. Yet it is notorious that he was naturally of a benevolent disposition, and tender sympa- thies. " Before the revolution, when as a judge in his native city of Arras he had to pronounce judg- ment on an assassin, he took no food for two days afterwards, but was heard frequently ex- claiming, ' I am sure he was guilty ; he is a vil- lain : but yet, to put a human being to death ! 1' He could not support the idea ; and that the same necessity might not recur, he relinquished his judicial office. — (See Laponneray's Life of Robespierre, p. 8.) Afterwards, in the Conven- tion of 1791, he urged strongly the abolition of the punishment of death ; and yet, for sixteen months, in 1793 and 1794, till he perished him. self by the same guillotine which he had so mer cilessly used on others, no one at Paris consigned and caused so many fellow-creatures to be put to death by it, with more ruthless insensibility' ." — Turner's Sacred History of the World, vol. 2. p. 119. But it is time we had done with the objection, " such cruelties are incredible." If the obj-ec- tor still reiterates it, he shall have the last word without farther molestation. An objection kindred to the preceding now claims notice. It is the profound induction that slaves must be well treated because slaveholders say they are I Objection. II.- -SLAVEHOLDERS PROTEST THAT THEY TREAT THEIR SLAVES WELL. Self-justification is human nature ; self.con- demnation is a sublime triumph over it, and as rare as sublime. What culprits would be convict, ed, if their own testimony were taken by juries as good evidence ? Slaveholders are on trial, charg- ed with cruel treatment to their slaves, and though in their own courts they can clear them- selves by their oxen oaths,* they need not think to do it at the bar of the world. The denial of * The law of which the following is an extract, rxists in South Carolina. " If any slave shall suffer in life, limb or inenibar, wh.'n no white person shall be present, or being present, shall refuse to give evidence, the owner or other person, who shall have the care of such slave, and in whose power such slave shall be, shall be dienied guilty of such of- fencf, unless such owner or other person shall make the contrary appear by good and sufficient evidence, or shall crimes, by men accused of them, goes for noth. ing as evidence in all civilized courts ; while the voluntary confession of them, is the best evidence possible, as it is testimony against themselves, and in the face of the strongest motives to conceal the truth. On the preceding pages, are hundreds of just such testimonies ; the voluntary- and ex- plicit testimony of slaveholders against them- selves, their families and ancestors, their constit- uents and their rulers ; against their characters and their memories ; against their justice, their BY HIS OWN OATH CLEAR AND EXCULPATE HIMSELF. AVhich oath every court where such offence shall be tried, is here- by empow.?red to administer, and to acquit the offender, if clear proof of the offence be not made by two witnesses at least." — 2 Brevard's Digest, 342. The state of Louisiana has a similar law. 122 Objections Considered — Slaveholders' Denial. honesty, their honor and their benevolence. Now let candor decide between those two classes of slaveholders, which is most entitled to credit ; that which testifies in its own favor, just as self- love would dictate, or that which testifies against all selfisli motives and in spite of them ; and though it has nothing to gain, but every thing to lose by such testimony, still utters it. But if there were no counter testimony, if all slavciioldcrs were unanimous in the declaration that the treatment of the slaves is good, such a declaration would not be entitled to a feather's weight as testimony ; it is not testimony huiopin. ion. Testimony respects matters of fact, not matters of opinion : it is the declaration of a witness as to /aci- , bers of tlieir own family, and often at the dead of night." Objections Considered — Northern Visitors. 131 those under the immediate direction of the mas- ter and mistress, than those under overseers and drivers. It is quite worthy of remark, that of the thousands of northern men who have visited the south, and are always lauding the kindness of slaveholders and the comfort of the slaves, protesting that they have never seen cruelties inflicted on them, &c. each perhaps, without exception, has some story to tell which reveals, better perhaps than the most barbarous butchery could do, a public sentiment toward slaves, showing that the most cruel inflictions must of necessity be the constant portion of the slaves. Though facts of this kind lie thick in every corner, the reader will, we are sure, tolerate even a needless illustration, if told that it is from the pen of N. P. Rogers, Esq. of Concord, N. H. who, whatever he writes, though it be, as in this case, a mere hasty letter, always finds readers to the end. " At a court session at Guilford, Stafford county, N. H. in August, 1837, the Hon. Daniel M. Du- rell, of Dover, formerly Chief Justice of the Com. mon Pleas for ;hat state, and a member of Con- gress, was charging the abolitionists, in presence of several gentlemen of tlie bar, at their boarding house, with exaggerations and misrepresentations of slave treatment at the south. ' One instance in particular,' he witnessed, he said, where he ' knew they misrepresented. It was in the Con- gregational meeting house at Dover. He was passing by, and saw a crowd entering and about the door; andon inquiry, found that abolition was goino- on in there. He stood in the entry for a moment, and found the Englishman, Thompson, was holding forth. The fellow was speaking of the treatment of slaves ; and he said it was no uncommon thing for masters, when exasperated with the slave, to hang him up by the two thumbs, and flog him. I knew the fellow lied there,' said the judge, ' for I had traveled through the south, from Georgia north, and I never saw a single instance of the kind. The fellow said it was a common thing.' ' Did you see any exasperated masters, Judge,' said I, ' in your journey ?' ' No sir,' said he, ' not an individual instance.' ' You hardly are able to convict Mr. Thompson of falsehood, then. Judge,' said I, ' if I understood you right. He spoke, as I understood you, of exasperated masters — and you say you did not see any. Mr. Thompson did not say it was com- mon for masters in good humor to hang up their slaves.' The Judge did not perceive the materi- ality of the distinction. ' Oh, they misrepresent and lie about this treatment of the niggers,' he continued. ' In going through all the states I visited, I do not now remember a single instance of cruel treatment. Indeed, I remember of see- ing but one nigger struck, during my whole jour- ney. There was one instance. We were riding in the stage, pretty early one morning, and we met a black fellow, driving a span of horses, and a load (I think he said) of hay. The fellow turned out before we got to him, clean down into the ditch, as far as he could get. He knew, you see, what to depend on, if he did not give the road. Our driver, as we passed the fellow, fetched him a smart crack with his whip across the chops. He did not make any noise, though I guess it hurt him some — he grinned. — Oh, no! these fellows exaggerate. The niggers, as a gen- eral thing, are kindly treated. Tliere may be ex- ceptions, but I saw nothing of it.' (By the way, the Judge did net know there were any abolition- ists present.) ' What did you do to the driver, Judge,' said I, ' for striking that man ?' ' Do !' said he, ' I did nothing to him, to be sure.' ' What did you say to him, sir ?' said I. ' Nothing,' he replied : ' I said nothing to him.' 'What did the other passengers do ?' said I. ' Nothing, sir,' said the Judge. 'The fellow turned out the white of his eye, but he did not make any noise.' ' Did the driver say any thing. Judge, when he struck the man?' 'Nothing,' said the Judge, 'only he damned him, and told him he'd learn him to keep out of the reach of his whip ' ' Sir,' said I, ' if George Thompson had told this story, in the warmth of an anti-slavery speech, I should scarcely have credited it. I have attended many anti-slavery meetings, and I never heard an in. stance of such cold-blooded, wanton, insolent, DIABOLICAL cruelty as this ; and, sir, if I live to attend another meeting, I shall relate this, and give Judge Durell's name as the witness of it.' An infliction of the most insolent character, en- tirely unprovoked, on a perfect stranger, who had showed the utmost civilitv, in giving all the road, and only could not get beyond the long reach of the driver's whip — and he a stage driver, a class generous next to the sailor, in the sober hour of morning — and borne in silence — and told to show that the colored man of the south was kindly treat ed — all evincing, to an unutterable extent, that the temper of the south toward the slave is mer- ciless, even to diabolism — and that the north regards him with, if possible, a more fiendish in- difference still '." It seems but an act of simple justice to say, in conclusion, that many of the slaveholders from whom our northern visitors derive their informa- tion of the " good treatment" of the slave, may not design to deceive them. Such visitors are often, perhaps, generally brought in contact with the better class of slaveholders, whose slaves are really better fed, clothed, lodged, and housed ; more moderately worked ; more seldom whipped, and with less severity, than the slaves generally. Those masters in speaking of the good condition of their slaves, and asserting that they are treated well, use terms that are not absolute but compara- tive : and it may be, and doubtless often is true that their slaves are treated well as slaiyes, in com. parison with the treatment received by slaves generally. So the overseers of such slaves, and the slaves themselves, may, without lying or designing to mislead, honestly give the same testimony. As the great body of slaves within their knowledge fare worse, it is not strange that, when speaking of the treatment on their own plantation, thev should call it good. 132 Oljections Considered — Interest of Masters. Objection V.—' IT IS FOR THE INTEREST OF THE MASTERS TO TREAT THEIR SLAVES WELL.' So it is for the interest of the drunkard to quit his cups ; for the glutton to curb his appetite ; for the debauchee to bridle his lust ; for the sluggard to be up betimes ; for the spendthrift to be eco- nomieal, and for all sinners to stop sinning. Even if it were for the interest of masters to treat their slaves well, he must be a novice who thinks that a proof tliat the slaves are well treated. The whole history of man is a record of real interests sacrificed to present gratification. If all men's actions were consistent with their best interests,- folly and sin would be words without meaning. If the objector means that it is for the pecu- niary interests of masters to treat their slaves well, and thence infers their good treatment, we reply, that though the love of money is strong, yet appetite and lust, pride, anger and revenge, the love of power and honor, are each an overmatch for it ; and when either of them is roused by a sudden stimulant, the love of money is worsted in the grapple with it. Look at the hourly lavish outlays of money to procure a momentary gratifi- cation for those passions and appetites. As the de- sire for money is, in the main, merely a desire for the means of gratifying other desires, or rather for one of the means, it must be the servant not the sovereign of those desires, to whose gratifica- tion its only use is to minister. But even if the love of money were the strongest human passion, who is simple enough to believe that it is all the time so powerfully excited, that no other passion or appetite can get the mastery over it ? Who does not know that gusts of rage, revenge, jea- lousy and lust drive it before them as a tempest tosses a feather ? The objector has forgotten his first lessons; they taught him that it is human nature to gratify the uppermost passion : and is prudence the upper- most passion with slaveholders, and self-restraint their great characteristic ? The strongest feeling of any moment is the sovereign of that moment, and rules. Is a propensity to practice ecoiwmy the predominant feeling with slaveholders ? Ri- diculous ! Every northerner knows that slave- holders are proverbial for lavish expenditures, never higgling about the price of a gratification. Human passions have not, like the tides, regular ebbs and flows, with their stationary, high and low water marks. They are a dominion convulsed with revolutions ; coronations and dethronements in ceaseless succession — each ruler a usurper and a despot. Love of money gets a snatch at the sceptre as well as the rest, not by hereditary right, but because, in the fluctuations of human feel- ings, a chance wave washes him up to the tlirone, and the next perhaps washes him off, without time to nominate his successor. Since, then, as a matter of fact, a host of appetites and passions do hourly get the better of love of money, what pro- tection does the slave find in his master's interest, against the sweep of his passions and appetites ? Besides, a master can inflict upon his slave hor- rible cruelties without perceptibly injuring his health, or taking time from his labor, or lessening his value as property. Blows with a small stick give more acute pain, than with a large one. A club bruises, and benumbs the nerves, while a switch, neither breaking nor bruising the flesh, in- stead of blunting the sense of feeling, wakes up and stings to torture all the susceptibilities of pain By this kind of infliction, more actual cruelty can be perpetrated in the giving of pain at the instant, than by the most horrible bruisings and lacerations; and that, too, with little comparative hazard to the slave's health, or to his value as property, and without loss of time from labor. Even giving to the objection all the force claimed for it, what protection is it to the slave? It professes to shield the slave from such treatment alone, as would either lay him aside from labor, or injure his health, and thus lessen his value as a working animal, making him a damaged article in the market. Now, is nothing had treatment of a hu. man being except that which produces these ef- fects ? Does the fact that a man's constitution is not actually shattered, and his life shortened by his treatment, prove that he is treated well ? I9 no treatment cruel except what sprains muscles, or cuts sinews, or bursts blood vessels, or breaks bones, and thus lessens a man's value as a work- ing animal ? A slave may get blows and kicks every hour in the day, without having his constitution broken, or without suffering sensibly in his health, or flesh, or appetite, or power to labor. Therefore, beaten and kicked as he is, he must be treated well, ac- cording to the objector, since the master's inter, est does not suffer thereby. Finally, the objector virtually maintains that all possible privations and inflictions suffered by slaves, that do not actually cripple their power to labor, and make them 'damaged merchandize,' are to be set down as ' good treatment,' and that nothing is bad treatment except what produces these effects. Thus we see that even if the slave were effect- ually shielded from all those inflictions, which, by lessening his value as property, would injure the interests of his master, he would still have no protection against numberless and terrible cruel- tics. But we go further, and maintain that in re- spect to large classes of slaves, it is for the in. Ohjections Considered — Interest of Masters. 138 lerest of their masters to treat them with barbarous inhumanity. 1. Old slaves. It would be for the interest of the masters to shorten their days. 2. Worn out slaves. Multitudesof slaves by bc- mg overworked, have their constitutions broken in middle life. It would be economical for masters to starve or flog such to death. 3. The incurably diseased and maimed. In all such cases it would be cheaper for masters to buy poison than medicine. 4. The blind, lunatics, and idiots. As all such would be a tax on him, it would be for his interest to shorten their days. 5. The deaf and dumb, and persons gi'eatly de- formed. Such might or might not be serviceable to him ; many of them at least would be a burden, and few men carry burdens when they can throw them off. 6. Feeble infants. As such would require much nursing, the time, trouble and expense necessary to raise them, would generally be more than they would be worth as working animals. How many euch infants would be likely to be ' raised,' from disinterested benevolence ? To this it may be added that in the far south and south west, it is notoriously for the interest of the master not to ' raise' slaves at all. To buy slaves when nearly grown, from the northern slave states, would be cheaper than to raise them. This is shown in the fact, that mothers with infants sell for less in those states than those without them. And when slave, traders purchase such in the upper country, it is notorious that they not unfrequently either sell their infants, or give them away. Therefore it would be for the interest of the masters, through, out that region, to have all the new-born chil- dren left to perish. It would also be for his mterest to make such arrangements as effectually to separate the sexes, or if that were not done, so to overwork the females as to prevent childbearing. 7. Incorrigible slaves. On most of the large plantations, there are, more or less, incorrigible slaves, — that is, slaves who will not be profitable to their masters — and from whom torture can ex- tort little but defiance.* These are frequently slaves of uncommon minds, who feel so keenly the wrongs of slavery that their proud spirits spurn their chains and defy their tormentors. They have commonly great sway over the other slaves, their example is contagious, and their influence subversive of 'plantation discipline.' Consequently they must be made a warning to * Advertisements like tlie following are not unfrequent in Uie southern papers. Prom the Elizabeth (JV. C.j Pheniz, Jan. 5, 1839. "The subscriber offers for sale his blacksmith Nat, 28 years of age, and remarkably large and likely. The only cause of my selling him is I cannot control him. Hertford, Dec. 5, 1838. J. Gordon." others. It is for the interest of the masters (at least they believe it to be) to put upon such slaves iron collars and chains, to brand and crop them ; to disfigure, lacerate, starve and torture them — in a word, to inflict upon them such vengeance as shall strike terror into the other slaves. To this class may be added the incorrigibly thievish and indolent; it would be for the interest oi the mas. ters to treat them with such severity as would de- ter otliers from following their example. 7. Runaways. When a slave has once runaway from his master and is caught, he is thencefor- ward treated with severity. It is for the interest of the master to make an example of him, by the greatest privations and inflictions. 8. Hired slaves. It is for the interest of those who hire slaves to get as much out of them as they can ; the temptation to overwork them ie powerful. If it be said that the master could, in that case, recover damages, the answer is, that damages would not be recoverable in law unless actual injury — enough to impair the power of the slave to labor be proved. And this ordi- narily would be impossible, unless the slave has been worked so greatly beyond his strength as to produce some fatal derangement of the vital functions. Indeed, as all who are familiar with such cases ia southern courts well know, the proof of actual injury to the slave, so as to lessen his value, is exceedingly difficult to make out, and every hirer of slaves can overwork them, give them insufficient food, clothing, and shelter, and inflict upon them nameless cruelties with entire impunity. We repeat then that it is for the inter, est of the hirer to push his slaves to their utmost strength, provided he does not drive them to such an extreme, that their constitutions actually give way under it, while in his hands. The supreme court of Maryland has decided that, ' There must be at least a diminution of the faculty of the slave for bodily labor to warrant an action by the mas- ter.' — 1 Harris and Johnson^s Reports, 4. 9. Slaves under overseers whose wages are pro- portioned to the crop which they raise. This is an arrangement common in the slave states, and in its practical operation is equivalent to a bounty on hard driving — a virtual premium offered to over- seers to keep the slaves whipped up to the top of their strength. Even where the overseer has a fixed salary, irrespective of the value of the crop which he takes off, he is strongly tempted to over- work the slaves, as those overseers get the highest wages who can draw the largest income from a plantation with a given number of slaves ; bo that we may include in this last class of slaves, the majority of all those who are under overseers, whatever the terms on which those overseers are employed. Another class of slaves may be mentioned ; we 184 Ohjectimis Considered — Interest of Masters. refer to the slaves of masters who bet upon their crops. In the cotton and sugar region there is a fearful amount of this desperate gambling, in which, though money is the ostensible stake and forfeit, human life is the real one. The length to which this rivalry is carried at the south and south west, the multitude of planters who en- gage in it, and the recklessness of human life exhibited in driving the murderous game to its issue, cannot well be imagined by one who has not lived in the midst of it. Desire of gain is only one of the motives that stimulates them ; — the eclat of having made the largest crop with a given number of hands, is also a powerful stimu- lant ; the southern newspapers, at the crop sea- son, chronicle carefully the " cotton brag," and the " crack cotton picking," and " unparalleled driving," &c. Even the editor of professedly religious papers, cheer rohibit their slaves acquiring that knowledge of letters which would enable them to read the laws ; and if, by stealth, they get it in spite of thim, they prohibit them books and pa- pers, and flog them if they are caught at them. Further — Caligula merely hung his laws so high that they could not be read — our slaveholders have hung theirs so high above the slave that they cannot be seen — they are utterly out of sight, and he finds out that they arc there only by the falling of the penalties on his head.* Thus the " public opinion" of slave states protects the de- fenceless slave by arming a host of legal penal- ties and setting them in ambush at every thicket along his path, to spring upon him unawares. Stroud, in his Sketch of the Laws of Slavery, page 100, thus comments on this monstrous bar- barity. "The hardened convict moves their sympathy, and is to bo taught the laws before he is expected to obey them :t yet the guiltless slave is subjected to an extensive system of cruel enactments, of no part of which, probably, has he ever heard." Having already drawn so largely on tlie read- er's patience, in illustrating southern ' public opi- nion' by the slave laws, instead of additional illus- trations of the same point from another class of tliose laws, as was our design, we will group toge- ther a few particulars, which the reader can take in at a glance, showing that the " public opinion" of slaveholders towards their slaves, which exists at * The following extract from the Alexandria (D. C.) Ga- zette is an illustration. "Criminals Condemned. — On Monday lust the Court of the borouph of Norfolk, Va. sat on the trial of four nepro boys arraigned for burglary. The first indictment charged them witli breaking into the hard- ware store of Mr. E. I*. Tabb, upon which two of them were found guilty by the Court, and condemned to suffer the penalty of the law, which, in the case of a slave, is death. Tiie second Friday in April is appointed for the execution of their awful sentence. Their ag-es do not exceed sixteen. The first, a fine active boy, belongs to a w/dow lady in Al- exandria : the latter, a house servant, is owned by a gentle- man in the borough. The value of one was fi,xed at f 1000, and the other at $800 ; wliich sums are to be reimbursed to their respective ownersout of the state treasury." In all probability these poor boys, who are to be hung for stealing, nevi^r dreamed that death was the legal penalty of the crime. Here is another, from the " New Orleans Bee" of 14. 1837. — "Tlie slave who strtck some citizens in Canal- street, some weeks since, has been tried and found guilty, and is sentenced to be htno on the 24th. t " It shall be the duty of the keeper [of the penitentiary] on the receipt of each prisoner, to re nrf to him or her such parts of the penal laws of this state as impose pezialties for CKcape, and to make all the prisoni rs in tlii' piiiitentiary ac(|uainted with tlie same. It shall also be his 'liity, on the discharge of such prisoner, to read to him or In; such parts of till' said laws as impose additional pnnishrnrnts for the repetitiiiii of dtriiices." — Rule Yith,for the internal govern- ment of the Pcnilevtiani of (feorffia. See 2(J of the Peni- tentiary Act of 1810.— Prince's Digest, 380. the south, in the form of law, tramples on all those fundamental principles of right, justice, and equity, which are recognized as sacred by all civilized na- tions, and receive the homage even of barbarians. 1. One of these principles is, that the benefits of law to the subject should overbalance its bur- dens — its protection more than compensate for its restraints and exactions — and its blessings alto- gether outweigh its inconveniences and evils — the former being numerous, positive, and perma- nent, the latter few, negative, and incidental. To- tally the reverse of all this is true in the case of the slave. Law is to him all exaction and no pro- tection : instead of lightening his na/«raZ burdens, it crushes him under a multitude of artificial ones; Instead of a friend to succor him, it is his deadliest foe, transfixing him at every step from the cradle to the grave. Law has been beautifully defined to be " benevolence acting by rule ;" to the Ame- rican slave it is malevolence torturing by system. It is an old truth, that responsibility increases with capacity ; but those same laws which make the slave a " chattel,''^ require of him more than of men. The same law which makes him a thing incapable of obligation, loads him with obligations superhuman — while sinking him below the level of a brute in dispensing its benefits, he lays upon him burdens which would break down an angel. 2. Innocence is entitled to the protection of law. Slaveholders make innocence free plunder ; this is their daily employment ; their laws assail it, iTiake it their victim, inflict upon it all, and, in some respects, more than all the penalties of the greatest guilt. To other innocent persons, law is a blessing, to the slave it is a curse, only a curse and that continually. 3. Deprivation of liberty is one of the highest punishments of crime ; and in proportion to its justice when inflicted on the guilty, is its injus- tice when inflicted on the innocent ; this terrible penalty is inflicted on two million seven hundred thousand, innocent persons in the Southern states. 4. Self-preservation and self-defence, are uni. vcrsally regarded as the most sacred of human rights, yet the laws of slave states punish the slave with death for exercising these rights in that way, which in others is pronounced worthy of the highest praise. 5. The safe-guards of law are most needed where natural safe-guards are weakest. Every principle of justice and equitj' requires, that, tho.se who are totally unprotected by birth, station, wealth, friends, influence, and popular favor, and especially those who are the innocent objects of public contempt and prejudice, should be more vigilantly protected by law, than those who are so fortified by defence, that they have far less need of legal protection ; yet the poor slave who is fortified by none of these personal bulwarks, is Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 151 denied the protection of law, while the master, ', surrounded by them all, is panoplied in the mail of legal protection, even to the hair of his head ; yea, his very shoe-tic and coat-button are legal protegees. 6. The grand object of law is to protect meiVs natural rights, but instead of protecting the natural rights of the slaves, it gives slaveholders license to wrest them from the weak by violence, protects them in holding their plunder, and kills the rightful owner if he attempt to recover it. This is the protection thrown around the rights of American slaves by the ' public opinion,' of slaveholders ; these the restraints that hold back their masters, overseers, and drivers, from in- flicting injuries upon them I In a Republican government, law is the pulse of its heart — as the heart beats the pulse beats, ex- cept that it often beats weaker than the heart, never stronger — or to drop the figure, laws are never worse than those who make them, very often better. If human history proves any. thing, cruelty of practice will always go beyond cruelty of law. Law-making is a formal, deliberate act, per- formed by persons of mature age, embodying the intelligence, wisdom, justice and liumanity, of the community ; performed, too, at leisure, after full opportunity had for a comprehensive survey of all the relations to be affected, after careful investigation and protracted discussion. Conse- quently laws must, in the main, be a true index of the permanent feelings, the settled frame of mind, cherished by the community upon those subjects, and towards those persons and classes whose condition the laws are designed to estab- lish. If the laws are in a high degree cruel and inhuman, towards any class of persons, it proves that the feelings habitually exercised towards that class of persons, by those who make and perpetuate those laws, are at least equally cruel and inhuman. We say at least equally so ; for if the habitual state of feeling towards that class be unmerciful, it must be unspeakably cruel, re- lentless and malignant when provoked ; if its ordinary action is inhuman, its contortions and spasms must be tragedies ; if the waves run high -when there has been no wind, where will they not break when the tempest heaves them ! Further, when cruelty is the spirit of the law towards a proscribed class, when it legalizes great outrages upon them, it connives at, and abets greater outrages, and is virtually an accomplice of all who perpetrate them. Hence, in such cases, though the degree of the outrage is illegal, the perpetrator will rarely be convicted, and, even if convicted, will be almost sure to escape pun- ishment. This is not theory but history. Every judge and lawyer in the slave states knows, that the legal conviction and punishment of masters and mistresseSjfor illegal outrages upon their slaves, is an event which has rarely, if ever, occurred in the slave st'ates ; they know, also, that although hundreds of slaves have been murdered by their masters and mistresses in the slave states, within the last twenty-five years, and though the fact of their having committed those murders has been established beyond a doubt in the minds of the surrounding community, yet that the murderers have not, in a single instance, suffered the penalty of the law. Finally, since slaveholders have deliberately legal, ized the perpetration of the most cold-blooded atro- cities upon their slaves, and do pertinaciously re- fuse to make these atrocities illegal, and to punish those w ho perpetrate them, they stand convicted before the world, upon their own testimony, of the most barbarous, brutal, and habitual inhu- manity. If this be slander and falsehood, their own lips have uttered it, their own fingers have written it, their own acts have proclaimed it ; and however it may be with their morality, they have too much human nature to perjure them- selves for the sake of publishing their own in- famy. Having dwelt at such length on the legal code of the slave states, that unerring index of the public opinion of slaveholders towards their slaves ; and having shown that it does not protect the slaves from cruelty, and that even ui the few in- stances in which the letter of the law, if executed, would afford some protection, it is virtually nulli- fied by the connivance of courts and juries, or by popular clamor; we might safely rest the case here, assured that every honest reader would spurn the absurd falsehood, that the ' public opinion' of the slave states protects the slaves and restrains the master. But, as the assertion is made so often by slaveholders, and with so much confidence, notwithstanding its absurdity is fully revealed by their own legal code, we pro- pose to show its falsehood by applying other tests. We lay it down as a truth that can be made no plainer by reasoning, that the same ' public opinion,' which restrains men from committing outrages, will restrain them from publishing such outrages, if they do commit them ; — in other words, if a man is restrained from certain acts through fear of losing his character, should they become known, he will not voluntarily destroy his character by making them known, should he be guilty of them. Let us look at this. It is assumed by slaveholders, that ' public opinion' at the south so frowns on cruelty to the slaves, that fear of disgrace would restrain from the in. fliction of it, were there no other consideration. Now, that this is sheer fiction is shown by the 152 Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion. fact, that the newspapers in the slavcholding states, teem with advertisements for runaway slaves, in Vv'hieh the masters and mistresses de- scribe their men and women, as having been ' branded with a hot iron,' on their ' cheeks,' 'jaws,' 'breasts,' 'arms,' 'legs,' and 'thighs;' also as ' scarred,' ' very much scarred,' ' cut up,' • marked,' &,e. ' with the whip,' also with ' iron collars on,' ' chains,' ' bars of iron,' ' fetters,' ' bells,' ' horns,' ' shackles,' &c. They, also, de- scribe them as having been wounded by ' buck- shot,' ' rifie-balls,' &c. fired at them by their ' owners,' and others when in pursuit ; also, as having ' notches,' cut in their ears, the tops or bottoms of their ears ' cut off,' or ' slit,' or ' one car cut off,' or ♦ both ears cut off,' &c. &c. The masters and mistresses who thus advertise their runaway slaves, coolly sign their names to their advertisements, giving the street and num- ber of their residences, if in cities, their post of- fice address, '< He belonged to Mr. a Frenchman, ran- U away, was caught, and punished with one hun. dred lashes ! This happened about Christmas , and during the cold weather at that time, he was confined in the Cane-house, with a scanty portion of clothing, and without fire. In this situation his foot had frozen, and mortified, and having been removed from place to place, he was yesterday brought here by order of his new master, who was an American. I had no time to protract my conversation with him then, but resolved to return in a few hours and pray witli him. * * " Having returned home, I again visited the hospital at half past eleven o'clock, and concluded first of all [he was to preach at 12,] to pray with the poor lacerated negro. I entered the apart- ment in which he lay, and observed an old man sitting upon a couch ; but, without saying any- thing went up to the bed-side of the negro, who appeared to be asleep. I spoke to him, but he gave no answer. 1 spoke again, and moved his head, still he said nothing. My apprehensions were immediately excited, and I fell for his pulse, but it was gone. Said I to the old man, ' surely this negro is dead.' ' No,' he answered, ' he haf fallen asleep, for he had a very restless sea- son last night.' I again examined and called the old gentleman to the bed, and alas, it was found true, that he was dead. Kot an eye had witnessed his last struggle, and I was the first, as it should happen, to discover the fact. I call- ed several men into the room, and without cere- mony thej' wrapped him in a sheet, and carried him to the dead-house as it is Cd,l\ed."—Edwardc' Life of Rev. EUas Cornelius, pp. 101, 2, 3. THE PROTECTION EXTENDED BY ' PUBLIC OPINION,' TO TH-E HEALTH* OF TIIE SLAVES. This may be judged of from the fact that it is per- feedy notorious among slaveholders, both North and South, that of the tens of thousands of slaves sold annually in the northern slave states to be transported to the south, large numbers of them die under the severe process of acclimation, all suffer more or less, and multitudes much, in their health and strength, during their first years in the far south and south west. That such is the case is sufficiently proved by the care taken by all who advertise for sale or hire in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, &c. &c. to inform the reader, that their slaves are ' Creoles,' ' southern born,' country born,' &c. or if they are from the north, that they are ' acclimated,' and the importance attached to their acclimation, is shown in the fact, that it is generally distinguished from the rest of the advertisements either by italics or CAPITALS. Almost every newspaper published in the states far south contains advertisments like the following. From the " Vicksburg (Mi.) Register," Dec. 27, 1838. " I OFFER my plantation for sale. Also seven- ty.five acclimated Negroes. O. B. Cobb." From the" Southerner," June 7, 1837. '• I WILL sell my Old-River plantation near Co- * See pp. 37-39. 162 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. lumbia in Arkansas ;— also ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ACCLIMATED SLAVES. Benj. Hughes." Port Gibson, Jan. 14, 1837. From the " Planters' (La.) Intelligencer," March 22. " Probate sale — Will be ofFcred for sale at Public Auction, to the highest bidder, ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY acclimated slaves." G. W. Kketom. Judge of the Parish of Concordia." From the '• Arkansas Advocate," May 22, 1837. " By virtue of a Deed of Trust, executed to me, I will sell at public auction at Fisher's Prairie, Arkansas, sixty LIKELY NEGROES, consist- ing of Men, Womon, Boys and Girls, the most of whom are well acclimated. Gkandison D. Royston, Trustee." From the " New Orleans Bee," Feb. 9, 1838. ' " valuable acclimated negroes." " WiLi/- be sold on Saturday, 10th inst. at 12 o'clock, at the city exchange,' St. Louis street." Then follows a description of the slaves, closing with the same assertion, which forms the cap. tion of the advertisement " all acclimated." General Feli.x Houston, of Natchez, advertises in the " Natchez Courier," April 6, 1838 " Thir- ty five very fine acclimated Negroes." Without inserting more advertisements, suf- fice it to say, that when slaves are advertised for sale or hire, in the lower southern country, if they are natives, or have lived in that n-eion lono- enough to become acclimated, it is invariably stated. But we are not left to conjecture the amount of suffering experienced by slaves from the north in undergoing the severe process of ' seasoning' to the climate, or ' acclimation.'' A writer in the New Orleans Argus, September, 1830, in an arti- cle on the culture of the sugar cane, says : ' The loss by deaih in bringing slaves from a northern climate, which our planters are under the neccs- fiity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per cent.' Nothwithstanding the immense amount of suffering endured in the process of acclimation, and the fearful waste of life, and the notori- ety of this fact, still the ' public oj)inion' of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Mis- souri, &.C. annually drives to the far south, thou- sands of their slaves to undergo these sufferings, and the ' public opinion,' of the far south buys them, and forces the heli)lcss victims to endure them. THE ' PROTECTION,' VOUCHSAFED BY ' PUBLIC OPIN- ION,' TO LIBERTY. This is shown by hundreds of advertisements ^n southern papers, like the following : From the " Mobile Register," July 21. 1837. "WILL BE SOLD CHEAP FOR CASH, in front of the Court House of Mobile County, on the 22d day of July next, one mulatto man named HENRY HALL, who says he is free; his owner or owners, if any, having failed to de- mand him, he is to be sold accordhig to the statute in such cases made and provided, to fay Jail fees. Wm. Magee, Sh'ff M. C." From the " Grand Gulf (Miss.) Advertiser," Dec. 7, 1838. '' COMMITTED to the jail of Chickasaw Co. Edmund, Martha, John and Louisa; the man .'SO, the woman 35, John 3 years old, and Lousia 14 months. They say they are free and were de coyed to this state." The " Southern Argus," of July 25, 1837, con- tains the following. " RANAWAY from my plantation, a negro boy named William. Said boy was taken up by Thomas Walton, and says Ae 'xas free, and that his parents live near Shawnectown, Illinois, and that he was taken from that place in July 183G ; says his father's name is William, and his mother's Sally Brown, and that they moved from Frede. ricksburg, Virginia. I will give twenty dollars to any person who will deliver said boy to me or Col. Byrn, Columbus. SAMUEL H. BYRN." The first of the follovcing advertisements was a standing one, in the " Vicksburg Register," from Dec. 1835 till Aug. 1836. The second advertises the same free man for sale. " SHERIFF'S SALE." " COMMUTED, to the jail of Warren conn, ty, as a Runaway, on the 23d inst. a Negro man, who calls himself John J. Robinson; says thai he «s//cc, says that he kept a baker's shop in Co- lumbus, Miss, and that he peddled through the Chickasaw nation to Pontotoc, and came to Memphis, where he sold his horse, took water, and came to this place. The owner of said boy is requested to come forward, prove property, pay c'p.arges, and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. Wm. Everett, Jailer. Dec. 24, 1835." " NOTICE is hereby given, that the above described boy, who calls himself John J. Robin- son, having been confined in the Jail of Warren county as a Runaway, for six months — and liav. ing been regularly advertised during this period, I shall proceed to sell said Negro buy at public auction, to the highest bidder for cash, at the door of the Court House in Vicksburg, on Mon- day, 1st day of August, 1836, in pursuance of thestatutein such cases made and provided. E. W. Morris, Sheriff. Viclisburg, July 2, 1836." Sec "Newburn (N. C.) Spectator," of Jan. 5, 1838, for the following advertisement. " RANAWAY, from the subscriber a negro man known as Frank Pilot. He is five feet eight inches high, dark complexion, and about 50 years old, has been free since 1829 — is now my property, as heir at law of liis last owner, 1 Samuel Riilstun, dec. I will give the above re- Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 163 ward if he is taken and confined in any jail so that I can get him. Samuel Ralston. Pactolus, Pitt County." From the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) '' Flag of the Union," June 7. " COMMITTED to the Jail of Tuscaloosa county, a negro man, who says his name is Robert Winfield, and says he is free. R. VV. Barber, Jailer.'^ That " puhlic opinion," in the slave states af- fords no protection to the liberty of colored per- sons, ev.en after those persons become legally free, by the operation of their own laws, is declared by Governor Comegys, of Delaware, in his re- cent address to the Legislature of that state, Jan. 1839. The Governor, commentmg upon the law of the state which provides that persons con- victed of certain crimes shall be sold as servants for a hmited time, says, '' Trie case is widelij different icith the negro (!) Although ordered to be disposed of as a servant for a term of years, perpetual slavery in the south is his inevitable doom ; unless, pcradventure, age or dlscaj:e may have rendered him icorthless, or some resident of the State, from motives of benevo- lence, will pay for him three or four times his intrinsic value. It matters not for how short a lime he is ordered to be sold, so that he can be carried from the State. Once beyond its limits, all chance oj restored freedom is gone — for he is i-emoved far from the reach of any testimony to aid him in an effort to be released from bondage, when his legal term of sei-vitude has expired. Of the many colored convicts sold out of the State, it is believed none ever return. Of course they are purchased tvilh the express vieio to their trans- portation for life, and bring such enormous prices as to prevent all competition on the part of those of our citizens who require their services, and would keep them in the State." From the " Memphis (Ten.) Enquirer," Dec. 28, 1838, " $50 Reward. Ranaway, from the subscri- ber, on Thursday last, a negro man named Isaac, 22 years old, about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, dark complexion, well made, full face, speaks quick, and very correctly for a negro. He was originally from New-York, and no doubt will at- tempt to pass himself as free. I will give the above reward for his apprehension and delivery, or confinement, so that I obtain him, if taken out of the state, or $ 30 if taken within the state. Jno. Simpson. Memphis, Dec. 28." Mark, with what shameless hardihood this Jno. Simpson, tells the public that he knew Isaac Wright was a free man ! ' He was originally FROM New York,' he tells us. And yet he adds with brazen effrontery, ' he will attempt to pass himself as free.' This Isaac Wright, was ship- ped by a man named Lewis, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and sold as a slave in New Or- leans. After passing through several hands, and being flogged nearly to death, he made his escape. and five days ago, (March 5,) returned to His friends in Philadelphia. From the " Baltimore Sun," Dec. 23, 1838. " Free N egroes. — Merry Ewall, a free negro, from Viiginia, was committed to jail, at Snow Hill, Md. last week, for remaining in the State longer than is allowed by the law of 1831. The fine in his case amounts toS225. Capril Purnell, a negro from Delaware, is now in jail in the same place, for a violation of the same act. His fine amounts to four thousand dollars, and he WILL BE SOLD IN A SHORT TIME." The following is the decision of the Supreme Court, of Louisiana, in the case of Gomez vs. Bcnneval, Martin's La. Reports, fi56, and Wheel- er's '' Law of Slavery," p. 380-1. Marginal remark of the Com.piler. — " A slave docs nob ber.ome free on his being illegally im- ported into the stale." " Ptr Cur. Derbigmj, J. The petitioner is a negro in actual state of slavery ; he claims his freedom, and is bound to prove it. In his at- tempt, however, to show that he was free before he was introduced into this country, he has failed, so that his claim rests entirely on the laws prohibit- ing the introduction of slaves in tiic United States. That the plaintiff was imported since that prohibition does exist is a fact sufRcientl)- established by the evidence. What right he lias acquired under the laws forbidding such importa- tion is the only question which we have to ex- amine. Formery, while the act dividing Louisiana into two territories was in force in this country, slaves introduced here in contravention to it, were freed by operation of law ; but that act was merged in the legislative provisions which were subsequently enacted on the subject of importa- tion of slaves into the United States generally. Lender the now existing laws, the individuals thus imported acquire no personal right, they are mere passive beings, who are disposed of accord- ing to the will of the different state legisla- tures. In this country they are to remain slaves, and TO BE SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE STATE. The plaintiff, therefore, has nothing to claim as a freeman ; and as to a mere change of master, should such be his wish, he cannot be listened to in a court of justice." Extract from a speech of Mr, Thomson of Penn . in Congress, March 1, 1826, on the prisons in the District of Columbia. " I visited the prisons twice that I might my- self ascertain the truth. * * In one of these cells (but eight feet square,) were confined at tliat time, seven persons, three women and four children. The children were confined under a strange system of law in this District, hj which a colored person who alleges he is free, and appeals to the tribunals of the country, to have the matter tried, is committed to prison, till the decision takes place. They were almost naked • one of them was sick, lying on the damp brick, floor, u'iihout bed, pillow, or covering. In this abominable cell, seven human beings were con- fined day by day, and night after night, without a bed, chair, or stool, or any other of the most 164 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. common necessaries of life." — Gales' Congres- sional Debates, v. 2, p. 1480. The following facts serve to show, that the pre. Pent generation of slaveholders do but follow in the footsteps of their fathers, in their zeal for LIBERIY. Extract from a d,)cument submitted by the I'ommittec of the yearly meeting of Friends in Philadelphia, to the Committee of Congress, to whom was referred the memorial of the people called Quakers, in 1797. " In the latter part of the year 1776, several of the people called Quakers, residing in the coun- ties of Perquimans and Pasquotank, in the state of North Carolina, liberated their negroes, as it was then clear there was no existing law to pre- vent their so doing ; for the lav*? of 1741 could not at that time be carried into effect; and tliey were suffered to remain free, until a law passed, in the spring of 1777, under which they were taken up and sold, contrary to the Bill of Rights, recog- nized in the constitution of that state, as a part thereof, and to which it was annexed. " In the spring of 1777, when the General As- sembly met for the first time, a law was enacted to prevent slaves from being emancipated, except for meritorious services, &c. to be judged of by the county courts or the general assembly ; and ordering, that if any should be manumitted in any other 'WA.y, they be taken up, and the county courts within whose jurisdictions they arc appre- hended should order them to be sold. Under tliis law the county courts of Perquimans and Pasquo- tank, in the year 1777, ordered a large NtjMcr.R OF PERSONS TO BE SOLD, WHO WJSRE FREE AT THE TIME THE LAW WAS MADE. In the year 1778 seve- ral of those cases were, by certiorari, brought be- tbre the superior court for the district of Eden- torn, where the decisions of the comity courts were reversed, the superior court declaring, that said county courts, in such their proceedings, have exceeded their jurisdiction, violated the rights of the subject, and acted in direct opposi- tion to the Bill of Rights of this state, considered justly as part of the constitution thereof; by giv- ing to a law, not intended to affect this case, a retrospective operation, thereby to deprive free- men of this state of their liberty, contrary to the laws of the land. In consequence of this decree several of the negroes vi'ere again set at liberty ; but the next General Assembly, early in 1779, passed a law, wherein they mention, that doubts have arisen, whether the purchasers of such slaves have a good and legal title thereto, and confirm the same ; under which they were again taken up by the purchasers and reduced to slavery." [Tiie number of persons thus re-enslaved was 134.] The following arc the decrees of the Courts, ordering the sale of those freemen : — •' Perquimans Ciinnty, July term, at Hartford, A. D. 1777. " These may certify, that it was then and there ordered, that the sheriff of the county, to-morrow morning, at ten o'clock, expose to sale, to the hjgliest bidder, for ready money,at the court-house door, the several negroes taken up as free, and m his custody, agreeable to law. " Test. Wm. Skinner, Clerk. " A true copy, 25th August, 1791. "Test. J. Harvey, Clerk." " Pasquotank County, September Court, &c. &c. 1777. " Present, the Worshipful Thomas Boyd, Tim- othy Hicksoii, John Paclin, Edmund Chancey, Joseph Reading, and Thomas Recs, Esqrs. Jus- tices. " It was then and there ordered, that Thomas Reading, Esq. take the free negroes taken up under aji act to prevent domestic insurrections and other purposes, and expose the same to th» best bidder, at public vendue, for ready money, and be accountable for the same, agreeable to tlie aforesaid act ; and make return to this or the next succeeding court of his proceedings. '• A copy. Enoch Reese, C. C." THE I'llOTECTION OF " PUBLIC OPLXION" TO domestics TIES. The barbarous indiffjrence with which slave- holders regard the forcible sundering of husbands and wives, parents and children, brotliers and sisters, and the unfeeling brutality indicated by the language in which they describe the efforts made by the slaves, in their yearnings after those from whom they have been torn away, reveals a 'public opinion' towards them as dead to thei» agony as if they were cattle. It is well nigh im possible to open a southern paper without findin> evidence of this. Though the truth of this assei tion can hardly be called in question, we subjoin a few illustrations, and could easily give hundreds. From the " Savannah Georgian," Jan. 17, 1839. " §)100 reward will be given for my two fellows. Abram and Frank. Abram has a wife at Colonel Stewart's, in Liberty county, and a sister in Sa- vannah, at Capt. Grovcnstine's. Frank has a wife at Mr. Le Cont's, Libert)' county; a mother ai Thunderbolt, and a sister in Savannah. Wm. Roiiarts. " Wallhourville, 5th Jan. 1839 " From the "Lexington (Ky.) Intblligcncer.' July 7, 1838. ■' $160 Reward. — Ranaway from the subscrib- ers, living in this city, on Saturday 16th inst. a negro man, named Dick, about 37 years of age. It is highly probable said boy will make for New Orleans, as he has a wife living in that city, and he has been heard to say frequently that he was determined to go to New Orleans. " Drake &, Thompson. " Lexington, June 17, 1838." From the " Southern Argus," Oct. 31, 1837. " Runaway — my negro man, Frederick, about 20 years of age. He is no doubt near the planta. tionof G. W. Corprew, Esq ofNoxubbee county, Mississippi, as his wife belongs to that grntlcman, and he folln^ced her from my residence. The above reward will be paid to any one who will confine him in jail and inform nic of it at Athens, Ala. " Athene, Alabama. Kerkman Lewis." Ohjcciions Considered — Public Opinion. 165 From the '' Savannah Georgian," July 8, 1837. " Ran away from the subscriber, his man Joe. He visits the city occasionally, where he lias been harbored by his mother and sister. I will give one hundred dollars for proof sufficient to convict his harbor ers. R. P. T. Mongin." The " Macon (Georgia) Messenger," Nov. 23, 1837, has the following : — " ^25 Reward. — Ran awaj% a negro man, named Cain. lie was brought from Florida, and has a wife near Mariana, and probably will at- tempt to make his way there. H. L. Cook." From the " Richmond (Va.) Whig," July 25, 1837. " Absconded from the subscriber, a negro man, by the name of Wilson. He wa« born in tho county of New Kent, and raised by a gentleman named Ratliffc, and, by him sold to a gentleman named Taylor, on whose farm he had a wife and several children. Mr. Taylor sold him to a Mr. Slater, who, in consequence of removing to Ala- bama, Wilson left ; and Vvhcn retaken was sold, and afterv.'ards purchased, by his present owner, from T. Mc Cargo and Co. of Richmond." From the " Savannah (Ga.) Republican," Sept. 3, 1838. " $20 Reward for my negro man Jim. — Jim is about 60 or 55 years of age. It is probable he will aim for Savannah, as he said he had children in that vicinity. J. G. Owens. " Barnwell District, S. C." From the " Staunton (Va.) pectator," Jan. 3, 1839. " Ranaway, Jesse. — He has a wife^ who be- longs to Mr. John RufF, of Lexmgton, Rockbridge county, and he may probably be lurking in that neighborhood, Moses McCue." From the " Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle," July 10, 1837. " $120 Reward for my negro Charlotte. She is about 20 years old. She was purchased some months past from Mr. Thomas J. Walton, of Au- gusta, by Thomas W. Oliver ; and, as her mother and acquaintances live in that city, it is very likely she is harbored by some of them. Martha Oliver." From the "Raleigh (N.C.) Register," July 18, 1837. " Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man named Jim, the property of Mrs. Elizabeth Whit- field. He has a wife at the late Hardy Jones', and may probably be lurking in that neighbor- hood. John O'Rorke." From the " Richmond (Va.) Compiler," Sept. 8, 1837. "Ranaway from the subscriber, Ben. He ran off without any known cause, and / suppose he is aiming to go to his wife, who was carried from the neighborhood last winter. John Hunt." From the " Charleston (S. C.) Mercury," Aug. 1, 1837 " Absconded from Mr. E. D. Bailey, on Wad. malaw, his negro man, named Saby. Said fellow was purchased in Januarj', from Franci.s Dickin- son, of St. Paul's parish, and is probably now in that neighborhood, where he has a wife. Thomas N. Gadsden." From the " Portsmouth (Va.) Times," August 3, 1838. " $50 dollars Reward will be given for the ap- prehension of my negro man Isaac. He has a wife at James M. Riddick's, of Gates county, N. C. where he may probably be lurking. C." Miller." From the " Savannah (Georgia) Repixblican," May 24, 1838. " $40 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber in Savannah, his negro girl Pat.sey. She was purchased among the gang of negroes, known as the HargreaveS estate. She is no doubt lurking about Liberty countj", at which place she has rela- tives. Edward Houstoun, of Florida." From the " Charleston (S. C.) Courier," June 29, 1837, " $20 Reward will be paid for tho apprehension and delivery, at the work-house in Charleston, of a mulatto woman, named Ida. It is probable she may have made her way into Georgia, where she has connections. Matthew Mugguidge." From the " Norfolk (Va.) Beacon," March 31, 1838. " The subscriber will give $20 for the appre- hension of his negro woman, Maria, who ran away about twelve months since. She is known to be lurking in or about Chnckatuch, in the county of Nansemond, where she has a husband, and formerly belonged. Peter Oneill." From the "Macon (Georgia) Messenger," Jan. 16, 1839. " Ranaway from the subscriber, two ncoroes, Davis, a man about 45 years old ; also Peggy, his wife, near the same age. Said negroes will probably make their way to Columbia county, as they have children living in that county. I will liberally reward any person who may deliver them to me. Nehemiah Kl^^g." From the " Petersburg (Va.) Constellation," June 27, 1837. " Ranaway, a negro man, named Peter. He has a wife at the plantation of Mr. C. Haws, near Suffolk, where it is supposed he is still lurking. John L. Dunn." From the "Richmond (Va.) Whig," Dec. 7, 1739. " Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man. named John Lewis. It is supposed that he i.s lurking about in New Kent county, where he pro- fesses to have a wife. Hill Jones, "Agent for R. F. & P. Railroad Co."' From the " Red River (La.) Whig," June 2d. 1838. " Ran away from the subscriber, a mulatto wo- 166 Oijections Considered — Public Opinion. man, named Maria. It is probable she may be ibuiid m the neighborliood of Mr. Jesse Bynum's j'lantation, where she has relations, tfcc. Thomas J. Wells." From the " Lcxinffton (Ky.) Observer and Re- porter," Sept. 28, 1838. " ^50 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, a neirro girl, named Maria. She is of a copper color, between 13 and 14 years of age — bare head- ed and hare fouled. She is small of her age — very sprightly and very likely. She stated she was going to see her mother at Maysville. Sanford Thomson." From the " Jaekson (Tenn.) Telegraph," Sept. 14, 1838. •' Committed to the jail of Madison county, a negro woman, who calls lier name Fanny, and says she belongs to William Miller, of Mobile. She formerly belonged to John Givins, of this county, who now owns several of her children. David Shuopshike, Jailor." From the " Norfolk (Va.) Beacon," July 3d, 1838. " Runaway from my plantation below Eden. ton, my negro man. Nelson. He has a mother living at Mr. James Goodwin's, in Ballaliack, Perquimans county ; and two brothers, one be- longing to Job Parker, and the other to Josiah Coffield. Wm. D. Rascoe." From the " Charleston (S. C.) Courier," Jan. 12, 1838. "^1(J0 Reward. — Run away from the sub- scriber, his negro fellow, John. Hf is well known about the eity as one of my bread carriers : has a tcife living at Mrs. Weston's, on Hempstead. John formerly belonged to Mis. Moor, near St Paul's ehiircii where his mother stdl lives, and has been harbored by her before. John T. Marshall, 60, Tradd-street." From the " Newborn (N. C.) Sentinel," March 17, 1837. " Ranaway, Moses, a black fellow, about 40 years of age — has a wife in Washington. Thomas Bragg, Sen. Warrenton, N. C." From the " Richmond (Va.) Whig," June 30, 1837. " Ranaway, my man Peter. — He has a sister and mother in New Kent, and a wife about fifteen or eighteen miles above Richmond, at or about Taylorsville. Theo. A. Lacy." From the " New Orleans Bulletin," Feb. 7, 1838. " Ranaway, my negro Philip, aged about 40 years. — He may have gone to St. Louis, as he has a wife there. W. G. Clark, 70 New Levee." From the " Georgian," Jan. 29, 1838. " A Reward of $5 will be paid for the appre- hension of his negro woman, Diana. Diana is from 45 to .')0 age;. She formerly belonged to Mr. Nath. Law, of Liberty county, lohere her hus- band still lives. She will endeavor to go there perhaps. D. O'Bvrne." From the " Richmond (Va.) Enquirer," Feb. 20, 1838. " ^10 Reward for a negro woman, named Sal- ly, 40 years old. We have just reason to believe the said negro to be now lurking on the James River Canal, or in the Green Spring neighbor, hood, where, we are informed, her husband re- sides. The above reward will be given to any person securing her. Polly C. Shields. Mount Elba, Feb. 19, 1838." "$50 Rcvvfard. — Ran away from the subscriber, his negro man Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne has purchased his wife and children from H. L. Pinckney, Esq. and has them now on his plantation at Goose- creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently lurking. T. Davis." " $25 Reward. — Ran away from the subscriber, a negro woman, named Matilda. It is thought she may be somewhere up James River, as she was claimed as a wife by some boatman in Gooch- land. J. Alvis." " Stop the Runaway ! ! !— $25 Reward. Ran- away from the Eagle Tavern, a negro fellow, named Nat. He is no doiilit attempting to follow his loife, who was lately sold to a speculator named Redmond. The above reward will be paid by Mrs. Lucy M. Downman, of Sussex county, Va." Multitudes of advertisements like the above ap. pear annually in the southern papers. Reader, look at the preceding list — mark the unfeeling barbarity with which their masters and inistresses describe the struggles and perils of sundered hus- bands and wives, parents and children, in their weary midnight travels through forests and rivers, wiih torn limbs and breaking hearts, seeking the embraces of each other's love. In one instance, a mother torn from all her children and taken to a remote part of another stale, presses her way back through the wilderness, hundreds of miles, to clasp once more her children to her heart : but, when she has arrived within a few miles of them, in the same county, is discovered, seized, dragged to jail, and her purchaser told, through an adver- tisement, that slie awaits his order. But wo need not trace out the harrowing details already before the reader. Rev. C. S. Renshaw, of Quincy, Illinois, who resided some time in Kentucky, says; — " I was told the following fact by a young lady, daughter of a slaveholder in Boone county, Ken- tucky, who lived within half a mile of Mr. Hughes' farm. Hughes and Neil traded in slaves down the river : they had bought up a part of their stock in the upjier counties of Kenluckv, and brought them down to Louisville, where the re- mainder of their drove was in jail, waiting their arrival. Just before the stermboat put ofT f.nr the low(T country, two negro women were offeri d for sale, each of them having a youiij; child at tlio Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 167 breast. The traders bought tliem, took their babes | from their arms, and offered them to the highest bidder ; and they were sold for one dollar apiece, whilst the stricken parents were driven on board the boat, and in an horn- were on their way to the New Orleans market. You are aware that a young babe decreases the value of a field hand in the lower country, whilst it increases her value in the ' breeding states.' " Tiie following is an extract from an address, published by the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky, to the churches under their care, in 1835 : — " Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are toin asunder, and per. mitted to see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony, ofteii witnessed on such occasions, proclaim, with a trumpet tongue, the iniquity of our system. Therf. i« not a neigh- borhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is, not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that thejr UEARTS HOLD DEAR." AddreSS, p. 12. Professor Ajnurevvs, late of the University of North Carolina, in his recent work on Slavery and the Slave Trade, page 147, in relating a con- versation with a slave-trader, whom he met near Washington City, says, he inquired, " ' Do you often buy the wife without the hus- band ?' 'Yes, VERY often; and FREQUENT- LY, loo, they sell me the mother while they keep her children. I have often known them take away the infant from its mother^s breast, and keep it, while they sold her.' " The following sale is advertised in the " Geor- gia Journal," Jan. 2, 1838. " Will be sold, the following property, to wit : One Child, by the name of James, about eight months old, levied on as the property of Gabriel Gunn." The following is a standing advertisement in the Charleston (S. C.) papers : — " 120 Negroes for Sale — The subscriber has just arrived from Petersburg, Virginia, with one hundred and twenty likely young negroes of both sexes and every description, which he offers for sale on the most reasonable terms. " The lot now on hand consists of plough boys, several likely and well-qualified house servants of both sexes, several women wilTi children, small girls suitable for nurses, and several small boys without their mothers. Planters and traders are earnestly requested te give the subscriber a call previously to making purchases elsewhere, as he is enabled and will sell as cheap, or cheaper, than can be sold by any other person in the trade. Benjamin Davis. Hamburg, S. C. Sept. 28, 1838." Extract of a letter to a member of Congress, from a friend in Mississippi, published in the "Washington Globe," June, 1837. " The times are truly alarming here. Many plantations «re entirely stripped of negroes (pro- tection !) and horses, by the marshal or sheriff. — Suits are multiplying — two thousand five hundred in the United States Circuit Court, and three thousand in Hinds County Court " Testimony of Mr. Silas Stone, of Hudson, New York. Mr. Stone is a member of the Epis- copal Church, has several times been elected an Assessor of the city of Hudson, and for three years has filled the office of Treasurer of the County, In the fall of 1807, Mr. Stone witness- ed a sale of slaves, in Charleston, South Caroli- na, which he thus describes in a communication recently received from him. " I saw droves of the poor fellows driven to the slave markets kept in different parts of the city, one of which I visited. The arrangements of this place appeared something like our north- ern horse-markets, having sheds, or barns, in the rear of a public house, where alcohol was a handy ingredient to stimulate the spirit of jockey- ing. As the traders appeared, lots of negroes were brought from the stables into the bar room, and by a flourish of the whip were made to as- sume an active appearance. ' What will you give for these fellows ?' ' How old are they ? ' Are they healthy ?' ' Are they quick ?' &,c. at the same time the owner would give them a cut with a cowhide, and tell them to dance and jump, cursing and swearing at them if they did not move quick. In fact all the transactions in buying and selling slaves, partakes of jockey- ship, as much as buying and selling horses. There was as little regard paid to the feelings of the former as we witness in the latter. " From these scenes I turn to another, which took place in front of the noble ' Exchange Buildings,' in the heart of the city. On the left side of the steps, as you leave the main hall, im- mediately under the windows of that proud build- ing, was a stage built, on which a mother with eight children were placed, and sold at auction. I watched their emotions closely, and saw their feelings were in accordance to" human nature. The sale began with the eldest child, who, being struck off to the highest bidder, was taken from the stage or platform by the purchaser, and led to his wagon and stowed away, to be carried into the country ; the second, and third were also sold, and so until seven of the children were torn from their mother, while her discernment told her they were to be separated probably forever, causing in that mother the most agonizing sobs and cries, in which the children seemed to share. The scene beggars description ; suffice it to say, it was sufficient to cause tears from one at least ' whose skin was not colored like their own,' and I was not ashamed to give vent to them." THE " protection" AFFORDED BY ' PUBLIC OPINION* TO CHILDHOOD AND OLD AGE. In the " New Orleans Bee." May 31, 1837, Mr. P. Bahi, gires notice that he has committed to JAIL as a runaway ' a Utile negro aged about SEVEN YEARS.' In the " Mobile Advertiser," Sept. 13, 1838, William Magee, Sheriff, gives notice that George Walton, Esq. Mayor of the city has committed to jail as a runaway slave, Jordan, about twelve 168 Ohjcciions Considered — Public Opinion. YEARS OLD, and the Sheriff proceeds to give no- tice that if no one claims him the boy will be sold as a slave to pay jail fees. In the '' Memphis (Tcnii.) Gazette," May 2, 1837, W. H. Montgomery advertises that he will sell at auction a boy aged 14, another aged 12, AND A GIRL lO, to pay the debts of their de- ceased master. " B. F. Chapman, Sheriff, Natchitoches (La.) advertises in the ' Herald,' of May 17, 1837, that he has '' committed to jail, as a runaway a negro boy between 11 and 12 years oe age." In the " Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle," Fob. 13, 1838, R. H. Jones, jailor, says, " Brought to jail a negro woman Sarah, she is about 60 or 65 years old." In the " Winchester Virginian," August 8, 1837, Mr. R. II. Menifee, offers ten dollars re- ward to any one who will catch and lodge in jail, Abram and Nelly, ahout 60 years old, so that he can get them again. J. Snowden, Jailor, Columbia, S. C. gives notice in the " Telescope," Nov, 18, 1837, that he has committed to jail as a runaway slave, " Caro- lincjifiy years of age.'" Y. S. Pickard, Jailor, Savannah, Georgia, gives notice in the " Georgian," June 22, 1837, that he has taken up for a runaway and lodged m jail Charles, 60 years of age. In the Savannah " Georgian," April 12, 1837? Mr. J. Cuyler, says he will give five dollars, to any one who will catch and bring back to him Saman, an old negro man, and grey, and has only one eye." In the " Macon (Ga.) Telegraph," Jan. 15, 1839, Messrs. T. and L. Napier, advertise for eale Nancy, a woman 65 years of age, and Peggy, a v;oman 65 years of age. The following is from the " Columbian (Ga.) Enquirer," March 8, 1838. " ^25 Reward. — Ranaway, a Negro Woman named MATILDA, aged about 30 or 35 years. Also, on the same night, a Negro Fellow of small size, VERY AGED, stoopshouldered, who walks very DECREiiiiLV, is supposed to have gone off. His name is DAVE, and he has claimed Matilda for wife. It may be they have gone off together. '' I will give twenty-five dollars for the woman, delivered to me in Muscogee count}-, or confiiied in any jail so that I can get her. Moses Butt." J. B. Randall, Jailor, Cobb (Co.) Georgia, ad- vertises an old negro man, in the " Milledgeville Recorder," Nov. 6, 1838. " A NEGRO MAN, has been lodged in the comnnm Jail of this: county, who says his name is JuriTi'R. lie has lost all his front teeth abox^e and below — speal.s very indistinctly, is very lame. So that he can hardly toall:.''^ Rev. Charles Stewart Rensiiaw, of Quincy, Illinois, who spent some time in slave states, speaking of his residence in Kentucky, says : — " One Sabbath morning, whilst riding to meet. ing near Burlington, Boone Go. Kentucky, in company with Mr. Willis, a teacher of sacred music and a member of the Presbyterian Church, I was startled at mingled shouts and screams, proceeding from an old log house, some distance from the road side. As we passed it, some five or six boys from 12 to 15 j-ears of age, came out, some of them cracking whips, followed by two colored boys crying. I asked Mr. W. what the scene meant. ' Oh,' he replied, '■ those boys have been whipping the niggers ; that is the way we bring slaves into subjection in Kentucky — we let llie children beat them.' The boys returned again into the house, and again their shouting and stamping was heard, but ever and anon a scream of agony that would not be drowned, rose above the uproar ; thus they continued tiU the sounds were lost in the distance." Well did Jefferson say, that the children of slaveholders are 'nursed, educated, and dailv exercised in tyranny.' The ' protection' thrown arovmd a mother's yearnings, and the helplessness of childhood by the ' public opinion' of slaveholders, is shown by thousands of advertisements of which the follow- ing are samples. From the " New Orleans Bulletin," June 2. " NEGROES FOR SALE.— A negro woman 24 years of age, and has tv.-o children, one eight and the other three years. Said negroes will be sold separately or together as desired. The woman is a good seamstress. She will be sold low for cash, or exchanged for groceries. For terms apply to Mayiiew Bliss, &, Co. 1 Front Levee." From the '' Georgia Journal," Nov. 7. " TO BE SOLD— One negro girl about 18 months old, belonging to the estate of Wilham Chambers, dec'd. Sold for the purpose of distri- bution .' .' Jethro Dean, ( Samuel Beall, (, ^^ °^^- From the " Natchez Courier," April 2, 1838. " NOTICE— Is hereby given that the under- signed pursuant to a certain Deed of Trust will on Thursday the 12th day of April next, expose to sale at the Court House, to the highest bidder for cash, the following Negro slaves, to wit ; Fann}^ aged about 28 years; Mary, aged about 7 years; Amanda, aged about 3 months ; Wilson, aged about 9 months. " Said slaves, to be sold for the satisfaction of the debt secured in said Deed of Trust. W. J. Minor." From the " Milledgeville Journal," Dec. 26, 1837. " EXECUTOR'S SALE. " Agreeable to an order of the court of Wil- kinson coimty, will bo sold on the first Tuesday in April next, before the Court-lioiisc door in the town of Irwington, ONE NEGRO GUll, about l700 years old, named Rachel, belonging to the Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 169 estate of William Chambers dec'd. Sold for the benefit of the heirs and en ditors of said estate. Samuel, Bell, Jesse Peacock, Ex'orsP From the " Alexandria (D. C.) Gazette" Dec. 19. " I will give the highest cash price for likely ne- groes, from lO to 25 years of age. Geo. Kephart.'' From the " Southern Whig," March 2, 1838.— " WIIjL be sold in La Grange, Troup county, one negro girl, by the name of Charity, aged about 10 or \'2 years ; as the property of Littleton L. Burk, to satisfy a mortgage ii. fa. from Troup In- ferior Court, in favor of Daniel S. Robertson vs. said Burk.'' From the " Petersburgli (Va.) Constellation," March 18, 1837. " 50 Negroes wanted immediately. — The sub- lieriber will give a good market price for fifty like- ly negroes, from 10 to 3J years of age. Henry Davis." The follov/ing is an extract of a letter from a gentleman,' a native and still a resident of one of the slave states, and still a slaveholder. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, his letter is now before us, and his name is with the Execu- tive Committee of the Am. Anti-slavery Society. " Permit me to say, that around this very place where I reside, slaves arc brought almost constantly, and sold to Miss, and Orleans ; that it is usual to part families forever by such sales — the parents from the children and the children I'rom the parents, of every size and age. A mother was taken not long since, in this town, from a sucking child, and sold to the lower country. Three young men I saw some time ago (aken from this place in chains — while the mother of one of them, old and decrepid, followed with tears and prayers her son, 18 or 20 miles, and bid him a final farewell .' O, thou Great Eter- nal, is this justice I is this equity 1 1 — Equal Rights ! !" Wc subjoin a few miscellaneous facts illus- trating the iNHt^siANiTY of slaveholding 'public opinion.' The shocking indiiference manifested at the death of slaves as human beings, contrasted with the grief at their loss as property, is a true index to the public opinion. of slaveholders. Colonel Oliver of Louisville, lost a valuable race-horse by the explosion of the steamer Oro- noko, a few months since in the Mississippi river. Eight human beings whom he held as slaves were also killed by the explosion. They were the-ridcrs and grooms of his race-horses. A Louisville paper thus speaks of the occurrence : ♦' Colonel Oliver sufft red severely by the ex- plosion of the Oronoko. He lost eight of his rub- bers and riders, and his horse, Joe Kearney, which he had sold the night before for 553,000." Mr. King, of the New York American, makes the following just comment on the barbarity of the above paragraph : " Would any one, in reading this paragraph from an evening paper, conjecture that these ' eight rubbers and riders,' that together with a horse, are merely mentioned as a ' loss' to their owner, were human beings — immortal as the writer who thus brutalizes them, and perhaps cherishing life as much? In this view, perhaps, the 'eight' lost as much as Colonel Oliver." The following is from the "Charleston (S. C.) Patriot," Oct. 18. " Loss of Property ! — Since I have been here, (Rice Hope, N. Santee,) I have seen much mi- sery, and much of human suffering. The loss of PROPERTY has been immense, not only on South Santee, but also on this river. Mr. Shoolbrcd has lost, (according to the statement of the phy- sician,) forty-six negroes — the majority lost being the primest hands he had — bricklayers, carpen- ters, blacksmiths and Coopers. Mr. Wm. Ma- zy ck has lost 35 negroes. Col. Thomas Pinknc}-, in the neighborhood of 40, and many other plant. ers, 10 to 20 on each plantation. Mrs. Elias Harry, adjoining the plantation of Mr. Lucas, has lost up to date, 32 ner''^<"s — the hest pari of her prim- est negroes on hei jjiantation." From the " Natchez(Mlss.) Daily Free Trader," Feb. 12, 1838. " Found. — A negro's head was picked up on THE RAIL-ROiVD YESTERDAY, WHICH THE OWNER CAN HAVE BY CALLING AT THIS OFFICE AND PAYING FOR THE ADVERTISEMENT." The way in which slaveholding ' public opi- nion' protects a poor female lunatic is illustrated in the following advertisement in the "Fayette- viUe (N. C.) Observer," June 27, 1838 : " Taken and committed to jail, a negro girl named Nancy, who is supposed to belong to Spencer P. Wright, of the State of Georgia. She is about 30 years of age, and is a luna- TIC. The owner is requested to come forward, prove property, pay charges, and take her away, or SHE WILL BE SOLD TO PAY HER JAIL Fs;ES. FRED'K HOME, Jailor." A late Prospectus of the South CaroUna Me. dical College, located in Charleston, contains the following passage : — " Some advantages of a peculiar character are connected with this Ins^titution, which it may be proper to point out. No place in the United States offers as great opportunities for the acqui. sition of anatomical knowledge, subjects being OBTAINED FROM AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION IN SUFFICIENT NUMBER FOR EVERY PURPOSE, AND PRO. PER DISSECTIONS CARRIED ON WITHOUT OFFENDING ANY INDIVIDUALS IN THE COMMUNITY ! I" Without offending any individuals in the com munity .' More than half the population of Charleston, we believe, is ' colored ;' their graves may be ravaged, their dead may be dug up, drag- ged into the dissecting room, exposed to the gaze, heartless gibes, and experimenting knives, of a crowd of inexDeriencjed operators, who are given to 170 ObjectioTis Considered — Public Opinion. understand in the prospectus, that, if tlicy do not acquire manual dexterity in dissection, it will be wholly their own fault, in neglecting to improve the unrivalled advantages afforded by the institu- tion — since each can have as many human bodies as he pleases to experiment upon — and as to the fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, and sisters, of those whom they cut to pieces from dav to day, why, they are not ' individuals in tlie community,' but ' property,' and however their feelings may be tortured, the ' public opi- nion' of slaveholders is entirely too ' chivalrous' to degrade itself by caring for them ! The following which has been for some time a standing advertisement of the South Carolina Medical College, in the Charleston papers, is ano- ther index of the same ' public opinion' toward slaves. We give an extract : — " Surgery of the Medical College of South Car. olina, Queen st. — The Faculty inform their pro- fessional brethren, and the public, that they have established a Surgery, at the Old College, Queen street, FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEfinoF.S, wllioh will continue in operation, duriiiaf the session of the College, say from first November, to the fif. teenth of Marcli ensuing. " The object of the Faculty, in opening this Sur- gery, is to collect as many interesting cases, as possible, for the benefit and instruction of their pupils — at the same time, they indulge the hope, that it may not only prove an accommodation, but also a matter of economy to the public. They would respectfully call the attention of planters, living in the vicinity of the city, to this subject ; particularly such as may have servants laboring under Surgical diseases. Such persons of color as may not be able to pay for Medical advice, will lie attended to gratis, at stated hours, as often as may be necessary. "The Faculty take this opportunity of soliciting the co-operation of such of their professional brethren, as arc favorable to their objects. " " The first thing that strikes the reader of the ddvertisement is, that this Surgery is established exclusively ' for the treatment of negroes,' and if he knows little of the hearts of slaveholders to- wards their slaves, he charitably supposes, that they ' feel the dint of. pity,' for the poor sufferers and have founded this institution as a special charity for their relief. But the delusion va- nishes as he reads on ; the professors take special care that no such derogator} inference shall be drawn from their advertisement. They give us the three reasons which have induced them to open this ' Surgery for the treatment of negroes.' The first and main one is, 'to collect as many interesting cases as possible for the benefit and instruction of their pupils' — another is, ' the hope that it may prove an accommodation,'' — and the third, that it may be 'a matter of economy to the public' Another reason, doubtless, and a con- trolling one, though the professors are silent about it, is that a large collection of ' interesting surgi- [ cal cases,' always on hand, would prove a power- ful attraction to students, and greatly increase the popularity of the institution. In brit.f, then, the motives of its founders, the professors, were these, the accommodation of their students — the accommodation of the public (which means, the uihites)— and the accommodation of slaveholders who have on their hands disabled slaves, that would make ' interesting cases,' for surgical ope- ration in the presence of the pupils — to these reasons we may add the accommodation of the Medical Institution and the accommodation of themselves J Not a syllable about the acco7nmodn. tion of the hopeless sufferers, writhing with the agony of those gun shot wounds, fractured sculls, broken limbs and ulcerated backs which constitute the 'interesting cases' for the professors to 'show off* before their pupils, and, as practice makes perfect, for the students themselves to try their hands at by way of experiment. Why, we ask, was this surgery established ' fnr the treatment of negroes' alone ? Why were these ' interesting cases' selected from that class exclu- sively? No man who knows the feeling of slave- holders towards slaves will be at a loss for the reason. 'Public opinion' would tolerate surgical ex- periments, operations, processes, performed upon them, which it would execrate if performed upon their master or other whites. As the great object in collecting the disabled negroes is to have ' inter- esting cases' for the students, the professors who perform the operations will of course endeavor to make them as ' interesting' as possible. The in- struction of the student is the immediate object, and if the professors can accomplish it best bv protracting the operation, pausing to explain the different processes, &c. the subject is only a negro, and what is his protracted agony, that it should restrain the professor from making the case as ' interesting' as possible to the students by so using his knife as will give them the best knowledge of the parts, and the process, however it may pro- tract or augment the pain of the subject. The end to be accomplished is the instruction of the student, operations upon the negroes are the means to the end ; that tells the whole stor}^ — and he who knows the hearts of slaveholders and has com- mon sense, however short the allowance, can find the way to his conclusions without a lantern. By an advertisement of the same Medical In- stitution, dated November 12, 1838, and publish- ed in the Charleston papers, it appears that an ' in- firmary has been opened in connection with the college.' The professors manifest a great desire that the mastersof servants should send in the r dis- abled slaves, and as an inducement to the furnish- ing of such interesting cases say, all medical and surgical aid will be offered without making them liable to any professional chr.rges. Disinterested Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 171 bounty, pity, sympathy, philanthropy ! However difficult or numerous the surgical cases of slaves thus put into their hands by the masters, they charge not a cent for their professional services. Their yearnings over human distress are so in- tense, that tliey beg the privilege of performing all operations, and furnishing all the medical atten- tion needed, gratis, feeling that the relief of misery is its own reward ! ! ! But we have put down our exclamation points too soon — upon read- ing the whole of the advertisement we find the professors conclude it with the following para- graph :— " The SOLE OBJECT of the faculty in the estab- lishment of such an institution being to promote the interest of Medical Education within their native State and City." In the " Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury" of October 12, 1838, w^ find an advertisement of half a column, by a Dr. T. Stillman, setting forth the merits of another ' Medical Infirmary,' under his own special supervision, at No. 110 Church street, Charleston. The doctor, after inveighing loudly against ' men totally ignorant of medical science,' who flood the country with quack nos- trums backed up by ' fabricated proofs of mira- culous cures,' proceeds to enumerate the diseases to which his ' Infirmary' is open, and to which his practice will be mainly confined. Appreciat- ing the importance of ' interesting cases,' as a stock in trade, on which to commence his experi- ments, he copies the example of the medical pro- fessors, and advertises for them. But, either from a keener sense of justice, or more generosi- ty, or greater confidence in his skill, or for some other reason, he proposes to buy tip an assort- ment of damaged negroes, given over, as incura- ble, by others, and to make such his ' interesting cases,' instead of experimenting on those who are the ' property' of others. Dr. Stillman closes his advertisement with the following notice : — "To Planters and others. — Wanted fifty ne. groes. Any person having sick negroes, consid- ered incurable by their respective physicians, and wishing to dispose of them. Dr. S. will pay cash for negroes affected with scrofula or king's evil, confirmed hypocondriasm, apoplexy, diseases of the liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach and intestines, bladder and its appendages, diarrhea, dysentery, &c. The highest cash price will be paid on appli- cation as above." The absolute barbarism of a ' public opinion' which not only tolerates, but produces such advertisements as this, was outdone by nothing in the dark ages. If the reader has a heart of flosh, he can feel it without help, and if he has not, comment will not create it. The total indifference of slaveholders to such a cold blood- ed proposition, their utter unconsciousness of the paralysis of heart, and death of sympathy, and every feeling of common humanity for the slave, which it reveals, is enough, of itself to show that the tendency of the spirit of slaveholding is, to kill in the sou] whatever it touches. It has no eyes to see, nor ears to hear, nor mind to under- stand, nor heart to feel for its victims as human beings. To show that the above indication of the savage state is not an index of individual feeling, but of ' public opinion,' it is sufficient to say, that it appears to be a standing advertise- ment in the Charleston Mercury, the leading po litical paper of South Carolina, the organ of the Honorables John C. Calhoun, Robert Barnwell Rhett, Hugh S. Legare, and others regarded as the elite of her statesmen and literati. Besides, candidates for popular favor, like the doctor who advertises for the fifty 'incurables,' take special care to conciliate, rather than outrage, ' public opinion.' Is the doctor so ignorant of ' public opinion' in his own city, that he has unwittingly committed violence upon it in his advertisement? We trow not. The same ' public opinion' which gave birth to the advertisement of doctor Still- man, and to those of thw professors in both the medical institutions, founded the Charleston ' Work House' — a soft name for a Moloch temple dedicated to torture, and reeking with blood, in the midst of the city; to which masters and mistresses send their slaves of both sexes to be stripped, tied up, and cut with the lash till the blood and mangled flesh flow to their feet, or to be beaten and bruised with the terrible paddle, or forced to climb the tread-mill till nature sinks, or to experience other nameless torments. The "Vicksburg (Miss.) Register," Dec. 27, 1838, contains the following item of information : " Ardor in Betting. — Two gentlemen, at a tavern, having summoned the waiter, the poor fellow had scarcely entered, when he fell down in a fit of apoplexy. ' He's dead !' exclaimed one. ' He'll come to !' replied the other. ' Dead, for five hundred !' ' Done !' retorted the second. The noise of the fall, and the confusion which followed, brought up the landlord, who called out to fetch a doctor. ' No ! no ! we must have no interference — there's a bet depending!' 'But, sir, I shall lose a valuable servant I' ' Never mind ! you can put him down in the bill !' " About the time the Vicksburg paper containing the above came to hand, we received a letter from N. P. Rogers, Esq. of Concord, N. H. the editor of the ' Herald of Freedom,' from which the following is an extract : '' Some thirty years ago, I think it was. Col. Thatcher, of Maine, a lawyer, was in Virginia, on business, and was there invited to dine at a public house, with a company of the gentry of the south. The place I forget — the fact was told me by George Kimball, Esq. now of Alton, Illi. nois, who had the story from Col. Thatcher him- 172 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. self. Among the servants \vaiting was a young negro man, whose beautiful person, obliging and assiduous temper, and his activity and grace in serving, made him a favorite with the company. The diimer lasted into the evening, and the wine passed freely about the table. At length, one of the gentlemen, who was pretty highly excited with wine, became unfortunately incensed, either at some trip of the young slave, in waiting, or at some other cause happening when the slave was within his reach. He seized the long-necked wine bottle, and struck the young man suddenly in the temple, and felled him dead upon the floor. The fall arrested, for a moment, the festivities of the table. ' Devilish unlucky,' exclaimed one. 'The gentleman is very unfortunate,' cried an- other. ' Really a loss,' said a third, &c. &,c. The body was dragged from the dining hall, and the feast went on ; and at the close, one of the gentlemen, and the very one, I believe, whose hand had done the homieide, shouted, in bacchanalian bravery, and southern generosity, amid the broken glasses and fragments of chairs, ' Landlord ! put the nioger into ruii bill !' This was that mmdrred young man's requiem and funeral service." Mr. Georor a. Avery, a merchant in Roches, ter, New York, and an elder in the P'ourth Prcs. byterian Church in that city, who resided four years in Virginia, gives the following testimony: " I knew a young man who had been out hunt- ing, and returning with some of his friends, see- ing a negro man in the road, at a little distance, deliberately drew up his rifle, and shot him dead. This was done without the slightest provocation, or a word passing. This young man passed through the form of a trial, and, although it was not even pretended by his counsel that he was not guilty of the act, deliberately and wantonly perpetrated, he teas acquitted. It was urged by his counsel, that he was a youvg man, (about 20 years of age,) had no malicious intention, his mother was a widow, &c. &c." Mr. Benjamin Clendenon, of Colerain, Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, a member of the Society of Friends, gives the following testimony : '' Three years ago the coming month, I took a journey of about seventy-five miles from home, through the eastern shore of Maryland, and a email part of Delaware. Calling one day, near noon, at Georgetown Cross-Roads, I found my- self surrounded in the tavern by slaveholders. Among other subjects of conversation, their hu- man cattle came in for a share. One of the com- pany, a middle-aged man, then living with a second wife, acknowledged, that after the death of his first wife, he lived in a state of concubinage with a female slave; but when the time drew near for the taking of a second wife, he found it expedient to remove the slave from the premises. The same person gave an account of a female slave he formerly held, who had a propensity for Eome one ])ursuit, I think the attendance of re- ligious meetings. On a certain occasion, ahe presented her petition to him, asking for this in- dulgence ; he refused — she importuned — and he, with sovereign indignation, seized a chair, and with a blow upon the head, knocked her sense- less upon the floor. The Fame person, for somo act of disobedience, on the part, I think, of the same slave, when employed in stacking straw, felled her to the eartli with the handle of 2, pitch fork. Ail these transactions were related with the utmo.tt composure, in a bar-room within thirty miles of the Pennsylvania line." The two following advertisements are illustra- tions of the regard paid to the marriage relations by slaveholding judges, governors, senators in Congress, and mayors of cities. From the " Montgomery, (Ala.) Advertiser." Sept. 29, lb37. " ^20 Reward. — Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses. He is of common size, about 28 years old. He formerly belonged to Judge Benson, of Montgomery, and it is said, has a wife in that county. John Gayle." The John Gayle who signs this advertisement, is an Ex-Governor of Alabama. From the " Charleston Courier," Nov. 28. " Ranaway from the subscriber, about twelve months since, his negro man Paulladorc. Hia complexion is dark — about 50 years old. I un- derstand Gen. R. Y. Hayne has purchased his wife and children from H. L. Pmckney, Esq. and has them now on his plantation, at Goose Creek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently lurking. Thomas Davis." It is hardly necessary to say, that the General R. Y. Hayne, and H. L. Pinckney, Esq. named in the advertisement, are Ex-Governor Hayne, formerly U. S. Senator from South Carolina, and Hon. Henry L. Pinckney, late member of Con. gress from Charleston District, and now Intcndant (Mayor) ol that city. It is no difficult matter to get at the ' public opinion' of a community, when ladies ' of prop- erty and standing' publish, under their own names, such advertisements as the following. Mrs. Elizabeth L. Carter, of Groveton, Prince William county, Virginia, thus advertises her ne- gro man Moses : " Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro man named Moses, aged about 40 years, about six feet high, well made, and possessing a good address, and has lost a part of one of his ears." Mrs. B. Newman, of the same place, and in the same paper, advertises — " Penny, the wife of Moses, aged about 30 years, brown complexion, tall and likely, no par- ticular marks of person recollected." Both of the above advertisements appear in the National Intelligencer, (Washington city,) June 10, 1837. In the Mobile Mercantile Advertiser, of Feb. 13, 1838, is an advertisement signed Sarah Walsh, of which the following is an extract: "Twenty-five dollars reward will be paid to any one who may apprehend and deliver to me, or confine in any jail, so that I can get him, my man Isaac, who ranaway sometime in September Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 173 Jast. He is 26 years of age, 5 feet 1 inches high, has a scar on his forehead, caused by a blow, and one on his back, made by a shot from a pis- tol." In the " New Orleans Bee," Dec. 21, 1838, Mrs. DuRVAN'T, whose residence is at the corner of Chartres and Toulouse streets, advertises a wo- man as follows : "■ Ranaway, a negro woman named Rachel — has lost all her toes except the large one." From the " Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat," June 16, 1838: " Ten Doll.\rs Reward. — Ranaway from the subscriber, a negro woman named Sally, about 21 years of age, taking along her two cliildren — one three yea.s, and the other seven months old. These negroes were purchased by me at the sale of George Mason's negroes, on the first Monday in May, and left a few days thereafter. Any person dehvering them to the jailor in Hunts- ville, or to me, at my plantation, five miles above Triana, on the Tennessee river, shall receive the above reward. Charity Cooper." From the " Mississippian," May 13, 1838 : " Ten Dollars Reward. — Ranaway from the subscriber, a man named Aaron, yellow com- plexion, blue eyes, &c. I have no doubt he is lurking about Jackson and its vicinity, probably harbored by some of the negroes sold as tiie property of my late husband, Harry Long, deceased. Some of them are about Richland, in Madison co. I will give the above reward when brought to me, about six miles north-west of Jackson, or put in JAIL, so that I can get him. Lucy Long." If tlie reader, after perusing the preceding facts, testimony, and arguments, still insists that the ' public opinion' of the slave states protects the slave from outrages, and alleges, as proof of it, that cruel masters are frowned upon and shun- ned by the community generally, and regarded as monsters, we reply by presenting the following facts and testimony. " Col. Means, of Manchester, Ohio, says, that when he resided in South Carolina, his neighbor, a physician, became enraged with his slave, and .sentenced him to receive two hundred lashes. After having received one hundred and forty, he fainted. After inflicting the full number of lashes, the cords with which he was bound were loosed. When he revived, he staggered to the house, and sat down in the sun. Being faint and thirsty, he begged for some water to drink. The master went to the well, and procured some water — but instead of giving him to drink, he threw the whole bucket-full in his face. Nature could not stand the shock — he sunk to rise no more. For this crime, the physician was bound over to Court, and tried, and acquitted — and THE NEXT YEAli HE WAS ELECTED TO THE LEGISLAiURE!" Testimony of Hon. John Randolph, of Vir- ginia : " In one of his Congressional speeches, Mr. R. says: Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims of it, like so many post-horses, whipped to death in a mail coach. Ambition has its cover-sluts in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ; but where are the trophies of avarice ? The hand-crtff, the manacle, the blood-stained cowhide ! What man is worse received in so- ciety FOR BEING A HARD MASTER ? WhO DENIES TUF HAND OF A SISTER OPw DAUGHTER TO SUCH MONSTERS?" Mr. George A. Avery, of Rochester, New York, who resided four years in Virginia, testi- fies as follows : " I know a local Methodist minister, a man of talents, and popular as a preacher, who took hie negro girl into his barn, in order to whip her — and she was brought out a corpse ! His friends seemed to think tiiis of so little importance to his ministerial standing, that although I lived near him about three years, I do not recollect to have heard them apologize for the deed, though I re- collect having heard one of his neighbors allege this fact as a reason why he did not wisk to heai him preach." Notwithstanding the mass of testimony which has been presented establishing the fact that fn the ' public opinion' of the South the slaves find no protection, some may still claim that the ' public opinion' exhibited by the preceding facts is not that of the highest class of society at the South, and in proof of this assertion, refer to the fact, that ' Negro Brokers,' Negro Specu- lators, Negro Auctioneers, and Negro Breeders, &c., are by that class universallj' despised and avoided, as are all who treat their slaves with cruelty. To this we reply, that, if all claimed by the objector were true, it could avail him nothing for 'public opinion' is neither made nor unmade by ' the first class of society.' That class pro- duces in it, at most, but slight modifications ; those who belong to it have generally a ' public opinion,' within their own circle which has rare- ly more, either of morality or mercy than the public opinion of tlie mass, and is, at least, equal- ly heartless and more intolerant. As to the esti- mation in which 'speculators,' 'soul drivers,' &c. are held, we remark, that, they are not de- spised because they trade in slaves but because they are working men, all such are despised by slaveholders. White drovers who go vi'ith droves of swine and cattle from the free states to the slave states, and Yankee pedlars, who traverse the south, and white day-laborers are, in the main, equally despised, or, if negro-traders excite more contempt than drovers, pedlars, and day-laborers, it is be- cause, they are, as a class more ignorant and vulgar, men from low families and and boors in their manners. Ridiculous I to suppose, that a people, who have, by laio, made men articles of trade equally with swine, should despise men- drovere and traders, more than hog-dro\ers and 174 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. traders. That they arc not despised because it is their business to trade in human beings and bring them to market, is plain from the fact that when some ' gentleman of property and standing' and of a ' good family' embarks in a negro speculation, and employs a dozen ' soul drivers' to traverse the upper country, and drive to the south coffles of Rlaves, expending hundreds of thousands in his wholesale purchases, he does not lose caste. It js known in Alabama, that Mr. Erwin, son-in-law of the Hon. Henry Clay, and brother of J. P. Erwin, formerly postmaster, and late mayor of the city of Nashville, laid the foundation of a princely fortune in the slave-trade, carried on from the Northern Slave States to the Planting South ; that the Hon. H. Hitchcock, brother-in-law of Mr. E., and since one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Alaba- ma, was interested with him In tlie traffic ; and that a late member of the Kentucky Senate (Col. Wall) not only carried on the same business, a few years ago, but accompanied his droves in person down the Mississippi. Not as the driver, for that would be vulgar drudgery, beneath a gentleman, but as a nabob in state, ordering his understrappers. It is also well known that President Jackson was a 'soul driver,' and that even so late as the year before the commencement of the last war, he bought up a coffle of slaves and drove them down to Louisiana for sale. Thomas N. Gadsden, Esq. the principal slave auctioneer in Ciiarleston, S. C. is of one of the first families in the state, and moves in the very highest class of society there. He is a descendant of the d istin guished General Gadsden of revolution- ary memory, the most prominent southern mem- ber in the Continental Congress of 1765, and after- wards elected lieutenant governor and then govern. or of the state. The Rev. Dr. Gadsden, rector of St. FJiilip's Church, Charleston, and the Rev. Phillip Gadsden, both prominent Episcopal cler- gymen in South Carolina, and Colonel James Gadsden of the United States army, after whom a county in Florida was recently named, are all brothers of this Thomas N. Gadsden, Esq. the largest slave auctioneer in the state, under whose hammer, men, women and children go ofFby thou- sands ; its stroke probably sunders daily, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sis- ters, perhaps to see each other's faces no more. Now who supply the auction table of this Thomas N. Gadsden, Esq. with its loads of human mer- chandize ? These same detested ' soul drivers' forsooth ! They prowl through the country, buy, catch, and fetter them, and drive their chained coffles up to his stand, where Thomas N. Gads- den, Esq. knocks them oflF to the highest bidder, to Ex-Governor Butler perhaps, or to Ex-Governor Haync, or to Hon. Robert Barnwell Rhctt, or to his own reverend brother. Dr. Gadsden. Now this high born, wholesale soul-seller doubtless de- spises the retail ' soul-drivers' who give him their custom, and so does the wholesale grocer, the driz- zling tapster who sneaks up to liis counter for a keg of whiskey to dole out under a shanty in two cent glasses ; and both for the sanac reason. The plea that the 'public opinion' among the highest classes of society at the south is mild and considerate towards the slaves, that thm do not overwork, underfeed, neglect when old and sick, scantily clothe, badly lodge, and half shelter their slaves ; that they do not barbarously flog, load witli irons, imprison in the stocks, brand and maun them ; hunt them when runaways with dogs and guns, and sunder by force and forever the nearest kindred — is shown, by almost every page of this work, to be an assumption, not only utterly ground- less, but directly opposed to masses of irrefragable evidence. If the reader will be at the pains to" review the testimony recorded on the foregoing pages he will find that a very large proportion of the atrocities detailed were committed, not by the most ignorant and lowest classes of society, but by persons ' of property and standing,' by masters and mistresses belonging to the ' upper classes,' by persons in the learned professions, by civil, judicial, and military officers, by the literati, by the fashionable elite and persons of more than ordinary ' respectability' and external morality — large numbers of whom are professors of religion. It will be recollected that the testimony of Sa- rah M. Grimk^, and Angelina G.Weld, was con. fined exclusively to the details of slavery as ex- hibited in the highest classes of society, mainly in Charleston, S. C. See their testimony pp. 22 — ^24 and 52 — 57. The former has furnished us with the following testimony in addition to that already given. "Nathaniel Hcywardof Combahee, S. C, one of the wealthiest planters in the state, stated, in con- versation with some other planters who were com- plaining of the idle and lazy habits of tlicir slaves, and the difficulty of ascertaining whether their sickness was real or pretended, and the loss they suffered from their frequent absence on this ac count from their work, said, ' I never lose a day's work : it is an established rule on my plan, tations that the tasks of all the sick negroes shall be done by those who are well in addition to their own. By tliis means a vigilant supervision is kept up by the slaves over each other, and they take care that nothing but real sickness keeps any one out of the field.' I .«pent several winters in tlie neigliborhood of Nathaniel Hey ward's plantations, and well remember his character as a severe task master. / was present when the above statement was made.'' The cool barbarity of such a regulation is hard. ly surpassed by the worst edicts of the Roman Caligula — especially when we consider that the plantations of this man were in the neighborhood of the Combahec river, one of the most unhealth Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 175 districts in the low country of South Carohna ; further, that large numbers of his slaves worked in the rice marshes, or ' swamps' as they are called in that state — and tliat during six months of the year, so fatal to health is the malaria of the swamps in tliat region that the planters and their families invariably abandon their plantations, re- garding it as downright presumption to spend a single day upon them ' between the frosts' of the early spring and the last of November. The reader may infer the high standing of Mr. Heyward in South Carolina, from the fact that he was selected with four other freeholders to constitute a Court for the trial of the conspirators in the insurrection plot at Charleston, in 1822. Another of the individuals chosen to constitute that court was Colonel Henry Deas, now presi- dent of the Board of Trustees of Charleston Col- lege, and a few years since a member of the Se- nate of South Carolina. From a late corresp n- dcnce in the " Greenvile (S. C.) Mountaineer," between Rev. William M. Wightman, a professor in Randolph, Macon, College, and a number of the citizens of Lodi, South Carolina, it appears that the cruelty of this Colonel Deas to his slaves, is proverbial in South Carolina, so much that Pro- fessor Wightman, in the sermon which occasion- ed the correspondence, spoke of the Colonel's in- humanity to his slaves as a matter of perfect no- toriety. Another South Carolina slaveholder, Hon. Whitmarsh B. Seabrook, recently, we believe, Lieut. Governor of the state, gives the following testimony to his own inhumanity, and his certifi- cate of the ' public opinion ' among South Caro- lina slaveholders ' of high degree.' In an essay on the management of slaves, read before the Agricultural Society of St. Johns, S. C. and published by the Society, Charleston, 1834, Mr. S. remarks : " I consider imprisonment in the stocks at night, with or without hard labor in the day, as a pow- erful auxiliary in the cause of good government. To the correctness of this opinion mamj can bear testimony. Experience has convinced me that there is no punishment to which the slave looks with more horror.'^ • ,,^ The advertisements of the Professors in the Medical Colleges of South Carolina, published with comments — on pp. 169, 170, arc additional il- lustrations of the ' public opinion ' of the literati. That the 'public opinion ' of the highest class of society in South Carolina, regards slaves as mere cattle, is shown by the following advertise- ment, which we copy from the "Charleston (S.C.) Mercury" of May 16 : " Negroes for S.\le. — A Girl about twenty years of age, (raised in Virginia,) and her two fe- male children, one four and the other two years old — is remarkably strong and healthy — never having had a day's sickness, with the exception of the small pox, in her life. The children are fine and healthy. She is very prolific in her. GENERATING QUALITIES, and uffords a rare opportu. nity to any person who ivishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for their oicn use. " Any person wishing to purchase, will please leave their address at the Mercury office." The Charleston Mercury, in which this adver- tisement appears, is the Uading political paper in South Carolina, and is well known to be the po- litical organ of Messrs. Calhoun, Rhett, Pickens, and others of the most prominent politicians in the state. Its editor, John Stewart, Esq., is a law- yer of Charleston, and of a highly respectable fa- mily. He is a brother-in-law of Hon. Robert Barnwell Rhett, the late Attorney-General, now a Member of Congress, and Hon. James Rhett, a leading member of the Senate of South Carolina ; his wife is a niece of the late Governor Smith, of North Carolina, and of the late Hon. Peter Smith, Intendant (Mayor) of the city of Charles- ton ; and a cousin of the late Hon. Thomas S. Grimke. The circulation of the ' Mercury' among the wealthy, the literary, and ths fashionable, is pro- bably much larger than that of any other paper in the state. These facts in connection with the preceding advertisement, are a sufficient exposition of the 'public opinion 'towards slaves, prevalent in these classes of society. The following scrap of ' public opinion' in Flo- rida, is instructive. We take it from the Frorida Herald, June 23, 1838 : Ranaway from my plantation, on Monday night, the 13th instant, a negro fellow named Ben ; eighteen years of age, polite when spoken to, and speaks very good English for a negro. As I have traced him out in several places in town, I am certain he is harbored. This notice is given that I am determined, that whenever he is taken, to punish him till he informs me who has given him food and protection, and / shall apply the law of Judge Lynch to my own satisfaction, on those concerned in his concealment. A. Wapson. June 16, 1838." Now, who is this A. Watson, who proclaims through a newspaper, his determination to put to the torture this youth of eighteen, and to Lynch to his ' satisfaction ' whoever has given a cup o.f cold water to the panting fugitive. Is he some low miscreant beneath public contempt ? Nay, verily, he is a ' gentleman of property and stand- ing,' one of the wealthiest planters and largest slaveholders in Florida. He resides in the vicini. ty of St. Augustine, and married the daughter »f the late Thomas C. Morton, Esq. one of the first merchants in New York. We may mention in this connection the well 176 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. known fact, that many wealthy planters make it a rule nezer to employ a physician among their slaves. Hon. William Smith, Senator in Con- gress, from South Carolina, from 1816 to 1823, and afterwards from 1826 to 1831, is one of this number. Ho owns a number o!" large plantations in the south western states. One of these, bor- ders upon the village of Huntsville, Alabama. The people of that village can testify that it is a part of Judge Smith's system never to employ a physician even in the most extreme cases. If the inedical skill of the overseer, or of the slaves themselves, can contend successfully with the disease , they live, if not, they die. At all events, a physician iB not to be called. Judge Smith was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States three years since. The reader will recall a similar fact in the testi- mony of Rev. W. T. Allan, son of Rev. Dr. Al- lan, of Huntsville, (see p. 47,) who says that Co- lonel Robert H. Watkins, a wealthy planter, in Alabama, and a presidential elector in 1836, who works on his plantations three hundred slaves, ' After employing a physician for some time among his negroes, he ceased to do so, al. lodging as the reason, that it was cheaper to lose a few negroes every year than to pay a physician.'' It is a fact perfectly notorious, that the late Ge- n(;ral Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, who was tlie largest slaveholder in the United States, and probably the wealthiest man south of the Poto- mac, v?as excessively cruel in the treatment of his slaves. The anecdote of him related by a cler- gyman, on page 29, is perfectly characteristic. For instances of barbarous inhumanity of va- rious kinds, and manifested by persons belonging TO THE MOST RESPECTABLE CIRCLES OF SOCIETY, the reader can consult the following references : — Testimony of Rev. John Graham, p. 25, near the bottom ; of Mr. Poe, p. 26, middle ; of Rev. J. O. Choules, p. 39, middle ; of Rev. Dr. Channing, p. 44, top ; of Mr. George A. Avery, p. 44, bot- tom ; of Rev. W. T. Allan, p. 47 ; of Mr. John M. Nelson, p. 51, bottom ; of Dr. J. C. Finley, p. (51, top; of Mr. Dustin, p. 66, bottom; of Mr. John Clarke, p. 87 ; of Mr. Nathan Cole, p. 89, middle ; Rev. William Dickey, p. 93 ; Rev. Fran- cis Hawley, p, 97 ; of Mr. Powell, p. 100 middle ; of Rev. P. Smith p. 102. The preceding are but a few of a large num. bcr of similar cases contained in the foregoing tes- liinonies. The slaveholder mentioned by Mr. Ladd, p. 80, who knocked down a slave and af- terwards piled brush upon his body, and consum- ed it, held the hand of a female .slave in the fire till it was burned so as to be useless for life, and confessed to Mr. Ladd, that he had killed four tlaves, had bi^cn a meniber of the Senate of Geor- gia and a clergyman. The slaveholder who v/hipped a female slave to death in St. Louis, in 1837, as stated by Mr. Cole, p. 89, was a Major in the United States Anny. One of the physicians who was an abettor of the tragedy on the Brassos, in which a slave was tortured to death, and another so that he barely lived, (see Rev. Mr. Smith's testimony, p. 102.) was Dr. An- son Jones, a native of Connecticut, who was soon after appointed minister plenipotentiary from Texas to this government, and now resides at Washington city. The slave mistress at Lexing- ton, Ky., who, as her husband testifies, has killed six of hi.s slaves, (see testimony of Mr. Clarke, p. 87,) is the wife of Hon. Fielding S. Turner, late judge of the criminal court of New Orleans, and one of the wealthiest slaveholders in Ken- tucky. Lilburn Lewis, who deliberately chopped in pieces his slave George, with a broad-axe, (see testimony of Rev. Mr. Dickey, p. 93) was a wealthy slaveholder, and a nephew of President JefFerson. Rev. Francis TIawley, who was a genera] agent of the Baptist State Convention of North Caroli- na, confesses (see p. 47,) that while residing in that state he once went out with his hounds and rifle, to hunt fugitive slaves. But instead of making further reference to testimony already bi^- fore the reader, we will furnish additional instan- ces of the barbarous cruelty which is tolerated and sanctioned by the ' upper classes ' of society at the south ; we begin with clergymen, and other ofScers and members of churches. That the reader may judge of the degree of ' protection' which slaves receive from ' public opinion,' and among the members and ministers of professed christian churches, we insert the folio \ving illustrations. Extract from an editorial article in the " Lowell (Mass.) Observer" a religious paper edited at tlic time (1833 by the Rev. Daniel S. Southbiayo, who recen y died in Texas. " We !' vc been among the slaves at the south. We took ,)ains to make discoveries in respect to the evili-' )f slavery. Wc formed our sentiments on tlie . .bject of the cruelties exercised towards the sla ■<; from having witnessed them. We now affirm that we never saw a man, who had never been at the south, who thought as much of the cruelties practiced on the slaves, as we know to be a fact. " A slave whom I loved for his kindness and the amiablencss of his disposition, and who belonged to the family where I resided, happened to stay out fifteen minutes longer than he had permission to stay. It was a mistake — it was unintentional. But what was the penalty ? He was sent to the house of correction with the order that he should have thirty lashes vpon his naked body loitk a knotted rope .' .' ! He was brought home and laid down in the stoop, in the back of the house. in the sun, npon the floor. And there he lay, witli more the appearance of a rotten carcass than a living man, for four days before he cnuld do more i than move. And wlio was this inhuman bcinjf Objectio7is Considered — Public Opinion. 177 calling God'b property his own, and using it as he would not have dared to use a beast ? You may say he was a tigcr~one of the more wicked sort, and that we must not judge others by him. He was a professor of that religion which will pour upon the loilling slaifeholder the retribution due to his sin. " We wish to mention another fact, which our own eyes saw and our own ears heard. We were called to evening prayers. The family as- sembled around the altar of their accustomed devotions. There was one female slave present, who belonged to another master, but who had been hired for the day and tarried to attend fami- ly worship. The precious Bible was opened, and nearly half a chapter had been read, when the eye of the master, who was reading, observed that the new female servant, instead of being seated like his own slaves, fiat upon the floor, was standing in a stooping posture upon her feet. He loid her to sit down ou the floor. She said it was not her custom at home. He ordered her again to do it. She replied that her master did not re- ijuire it. Irritated by this answer, he repeatedly struck her upon the head with the very Bible he held in his hand. And not content with tiiis, he seized his cane and caned her down stairs most unmercifully. He then returned to resume his profane work, but we need not say that all the family were not there. Do you ask again, who was this wicked man ? He was a professor of religion ! .'" Rev. Hu-NTiNGTON LvMAN, late pastor of the Free Church in Buffalo, New York, says : — '' Walking one day in New Orleans with a professional gentleman, who was educated in Connecticut, we were met by a black man ; the gentleman was greatly incensed with the black man for passing so near him, and turning upon him he pushed him with violence off the walk into the street. This man was a nrofessor of re- ligion." [And we add, a member, and if we mistake not an officer of the Presbyterian Church which was established there by Rev. Joel Parker, and which was then under his teachings. — Ed.] Mr. EzEKiEL BiRDSEVE, a gentleman of known probity, in Cornwall, Litchfield county, Conn, gives the testimony which follows : — " A Baptist clergyman in Laurens District, S, C. WHIPPED HIS SLAVE TO DEATH, whom he sus. pected of having stolen about sixty dollars. The slave was in the prime of life and was purchased a few weeks before for $800 of a slave trader from Virginia or Maryland. The coroner, Wm. Irby, at whose house I was then boarding, told ?Me, thaton reviewing the dead body, he found it beat to a jelly from head to foot. The master's wife discovered the money a day or two after the death of the slave. She had herself removed it from where it was placed, not knowing what it was, as it was tied up in a thick envelope. I happrned to be present when the trial of this man took place, at Laurens Court House. His daughter testified ihat her father untied the slave, when he appear- fed to be faihng, and gave him cold water to drink, «f which he took freely. His counsel pleaded that 12 his death might have been cauled by drinking cold water in a state of excitement. The Judge charged the jury, that it would be their duty to find the defendant guilty, if they beheved the death was caused by the whipping; but if they were of opinion that drinking cold water caused the death, they would find him not guilty I The jury found him — not guilty !" Dr. Jehemiah S. Waugh, a physician in Somer- ville, Butler county, Ohio, testifies as follows : — " In the year 1825, I boarded with the Rev. John Mushat, a Seceder minister, and principal of an academy in Iredel county, N. C. He had slaves, and was in the habit of restricting them on the Sabbath. One of his slaves, however, ven- tured to disobey his injunctions. The offence was, he went away on Sabbath evening, and did not TCtarn till Monday morning. About the time we were called to breakfast, the Rev. gentleman was engaged in chastising him for breaking the Sab- hath. He detennijied not to submit — attempted to escape by flight. 'Yhr, master immediately took down his gun and pursued irim — levelled his in- strument of death, and told him. if lie did not stop instantly he icould blow him through. The poor slave returned to the house and submitted himself to the lash ; and the good master, while yet pale WITH RAGE, sat doicn to the table, and with a trem- bllng voice asked God's blessing !" The following letter was sent by Capt. Jacob DuxiiAM, of New York city, to a slaveholder in Georgetown, D. C. more than twenty years since': " Georgetown, June 13, 1815. " Dear sir — Passing your house yesterday, I beheld a scene of cruelty seldom witnessed ; that was the brutal chastisement of your negro girl> lashed to a ladder and beaten in an inhuman man- ner, too bad to describe. My blood chills while 1 contemplate the subject. This has led me to in- vestigate your character from your neighbors; who inform me that you have caused the death of one negro man, whom you struck with a sledge for some trivial fault — that you have beaten ano- ther black girl with such severity that the splint- ers remained in her back for some weeks after you sold her — and many other acts of barbarity, too lengthy to enumerate. And to ray great sur- prise, I find you are a professor of the Christian religion .' " You will naturally inquire, why I meddle with your family affairs. My answer is, the cause of humanity and a sense of my duty requires it. — With these hasty remarks I leave you to reflect on the subject ; but wish you to remember, that there is an all-seeing eye who knows all our faults and will reward us according to our deeds. I remain, sir, yours. Sec. Jacob Dunham, Master of the brig Cyrus, of N. Y." Rev. Sylvester Cowles, pastor of the Presby- terian church in Frcdonia, N. Y. says : — " A young man, a member of the church in Conewango, went to Alabama last year, to reside as a clerk in an uncle's store. When he had been there about nine months, he wrote his father that he must return home. To sec members of thy same ciiurch sit at the communion tabic of ouf 178 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. Lord one day, and the next to see one seize any weapon and knock the other down, as /;•» had seen, lie cotdd not hve there. His good father forthwith gave him permission to return home." The following is a specimen of the shameless Jiardihood with which a professed minister of tlie Gospel, and editor of a religious paper, assumes the right to hold God's image as a chattel. It is from the Southern Christian Herald ; — " It is stated in the Georgetown Union, that a negro, supposed to have died of cholera, when that disease [trcvailcd in Charleston, was carried to tlie public burying ground to be interred ; but before interment signs of life appeared, and, by the use of proper means, he was restored to health. And now the man who first perceived the signs of life in the slave, and that led to his preservation, claims the property as his own, and is about bring- ing suit for its recovery. As well might a man who rescued his neiglibor's slave, or his horse, from drowning, or who extinguished the flames that would otherwise soon have burnt down his neighbor's house, claim the property as his own." Rev. George Bourne, of New- York citj', late Editor of the '' Protestant Vindicator," who was a preacher seven years in Virginia, gives the fol- lowing testimony.* " Benjamin Lewis, who was an elder in the Pres- byterian church, engaged a carpenter to repair and enlarge his house. After some time had elapsed, Kyle, the builder, was awakened very early in the morning by a most piteous moaning and shrieking. He arose, and following the sound, discovered a colored woman nearl}' naked, tied to a fence, while Lewis was lacerating her. Kyle instantly commanded the slave driver to de- sist. Lewis maintained his jurisdiction over his slaves, and threatened Kyle that he would punish him for his interference." Finally Kyle obtained the release of the victim. " A second and a tl:ird scene of the same kind occurred, and on the third occasion the alterca- * A few years since Mr. Bourne published a work en- titled, " Picture of slavery in the United States." In which he describes a variety of horrid atrocities perpetrated upon slaves ; such c sent him contain, ing the whole affair. He also stated to me, ve* OhjectioTis Considerd — Public Opinion. 181 bally, that the young man he attempted to shoot was about nineteen years of age, and had been shut up in a corn-house, and in the attempt of Mr. Whitby to chain him, he broke down the door and made his escape as above mentioned, and that Mr. VV. was under the necessity of hiring him out for one year, with the risk of his employer's getting him. Brother Perry conversed with one of the slaves, who was so old that he thought it not profitable to remove so far, and had been sold ; he informed him of all the above circumstances, and said, with tears, that he thought he had been so faithful as to be entitled to liberty, but instead of making him free, he had «old him to another master, besides parting one husband and wife from those ties rendered a thousand times dearer by an infant child which was torn for ever from the husband. William Bardwell." Sandwich, Mass., March 4, 1839." Mr. William Poe, till recently a slaveholder m Virginia, now an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Delhi, Ohio, gives the following tes- timony : — " An elder in the Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg had a most faithful servant, whom he flogged severely and sent him to prison, and had him confined as a felon a number of days, for be. tng saucy. Another elder of the same church, an auctioneer, habitually sold slaves at his stand — very frequently parted families — would often go into the country to sell slaves on execution and otherwise ; when remonstrated with, he justified himself, saying, ' it was his business ;' the church also justified him on the same ground. '' A Doctor Duval, of Lynchburg, Va. got of- fended with a very faithful, worthy servant, and immediately sold him to a negro trader, to be taken to Now Orleans ; Duval siHl keeping the wife of the man as his slave. This Duval was a professor of religion." Mr. Samuel Hall, a teacher in Marietta Col- lege. Ohio, says, in a recent letter : — '' A student in Marietta College, from Missis. sippi, a professor of religion, aijd in every waj' worthy of entire confidence, made to me the fol. lowing statement. [If his name were published it would probably cost him his life.] " When I was in the family of the Rev. James Martin, of Louisville, Winston county, Mississip- pi, in the spring of 1838, Mrs. Martin became of- fended at a female slave, because she did not move faster. She commanded her to do so ; the girl quickened her pace ; again she was ordered to move faster, or, Mrs. M. declared, she would break the broomstick over her head. Again the slave quickened her pace ; but not coming up to the maximum desired by Mrs. M. the latter de. clared she would see whether she (the slave) could move or not : and, going into another apartment, she brought in a raw hide, awaiting the return of tier husband for its application. In this instance I know not what was the final result, but I have heard the sound of the raw-hide in at least two other instances, applied by this same reverend gentleman to the back of his female servant." Mr. Hall adds — " The name of my mformaut must be suppressed, as" he says, " there are those who would cut my throat in a moment, if the in. formation I give were to be coupled with my name." Suffice it to say that he is a professor of religion, a native of Virginia, and a student of Marietta College, whose character will bear the strictest scrutinJ^ He says : — " In 1838, at Charlestown, Va. I conversed with several members of the church under the care of the Rev. Mr. Brown, of tiie same place. Taking occasion to speak of slavery, and of the sin of slaveholding, to one of them who was a lady, she replied, ' I am a slaveholder, and I glory in it.' I had a conversation, a few days after, with the pastor himself, concerning the state of religion in his church, and who were tlic most exemplary members in it The pastor mentioned several of those who were of that description ; the first of whom, however, was the identical lady who glo. tied in being a slaveholder ! That church num- bers nearly two hundred members. " Another lady, who was considered as devoted a Christian as any in the same church, but who was in poor health, was accustomed to flog some of her female domestics with a raw-hide till she was exhausted, and then go and lie down till her strength was recruited, rising again and resuming the flagellation. This she considered as not at all derogatory to her Christian character." Mr. Joel S. Bingham, of Cornwall, Vermont, lately a student in Middlebury College, and a member of the Congregational Church, spent a few weeks in Kentucky, in the summer of 1838. He relates the following occurrence which took place in the neighborhood where he resided, and was a matter of perfect notoriety in the vicinity. " Rev. Mr. Lewis, a Baptist minister in the vi- cinity of Frankfort, Ky. had a slave that ran away, but was retaken and brought back to his master, who threatened him with punishment for making an attempt to escape. Though terri- fied the slave immediately attempted to run away again. Mr. L. commanded him to stop, but he did not obey. Mr. L. then took a gun, loaded with small shot and fired at the slave, who fell; but was not killed, and afterward recovered. Mr. L. did not probably intend to kill the slave, as it was his legs which were aimed at and received the contents of the gun. The master asserted that he was driven to this necessity to maintain his authority. This took place about the first of July, 1838." The following is given upon the authority of Rev. Orange Scott, o.f Lowell, Mass. for many years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episco- pal Church. " Rev. Joseph Hough, a Baptist minister, for- merly of Springfield, Mass. now of Plainfield, N. H. while traveling in the south, a few years ago, put up one night with a Method'st family, and spent the Sabbath with them. While there, one of the female slaves did something which dis- pleased her mistress. She took a chisel and mal- let, and very deliberately cut off one of her toes I" 182 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. SLAVE BREEDING an index of ' public opi- nion' AMONG THE 'HIGHEST CLASS OF SOCIETY* IN Virginia and other northern slave states. But we shall be told, that ' slave-breeders' are regarded with contempt, and the business of slave breeding is looked upon as despicable ; and the hot disclaimer of Mr. Stevenson, our Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of St. James, in reply to Mr.O'Connell, who had intimated that he might be a ' slave breeder,' will doubtless be quoted.* In reply, we need not say what every body knows, that if Mr. Stevenson is not a ' slave breeder,' he is a solitary exception among the large slave- holders of Virginia. What ! Virginia slavehold- I ^rs not ' slave-breeders ?' the pretence is ridicu- Ions and contemptible ; it is meanness, hypocrisy, :ind falsehood, as is abundantly proved by the tes- timony which follows : — Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the Legislature of that state, Jan. 18, 1831, (sec Rich- mond Whig,) says : — "It has always (perhaps erroneously) been con- sidered by steady and old-fashioned people, that the ovi'ner of land had a reasonable right to its an- nual profits; the owner of orchards, to their an- nual fruits; the owner of brood nuires^ to their product ; and the owner oi female slaves, to their incrrnfie. We have not the fine-spun intelligence, nor legal acumen, to discover the technical dis- tinctions drawn by gentlemen. The legal maxim ni'' Partus seqnitnr nentrem' is coeval with the oxislencc cf tiie rights of property itself, and is founded in wisdnni and justice. It is on the jus- tice and inviolability of tiiis maxim that the mas- ter foregoes the service of the female slave ; has her nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant off- spring. The value of the property justifies the expense ; and I do not hesitate lo say, that in its irtcreasc consists much of our wealth." Hon. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia, formerly Governor of that state, in his speech be- fore the legislature in 1832, while speaking of the * The followini; Is Mr. Stevenson's disclaimer : it was puhlislicd in the ' London Mail,' Oct. 30, 1838. To tlip Editor of the Evening- Mail: Sir — I did not sic; until niy return from Scotland the note addressed by Mr. O'ConncIl, to the editor of the Chronicle, purporting to give an explanation of the correspondence wliich lias passed between us, and which I deemed it proper to make public. I do not intend to be drawn into any dis- cussion of the suliject of domestic slavery as it exists in the United States, nor to give any explanation of the motives or circumstances under wliich I have acted. Disposed to regard Mr. O'Connell as a man of honor, I was induced to take the course I did ; whether justifiable or not, the world will now decide. The tone and report of his last note 'in which Jie disavows r(;sponsibility for any thing he may sayl precludes any further notice from me, tlian to say tliat the charge which he has thought proper again to repeat, of my being a breeder of slaves for sale and traffick, is wholly destitute of truth ; and that I am warrant- ed in believing it has been made by him without the slight 'ay seriously injured, often for life, and not unfrequently they are killed by the rupture of some vital part in the struggle. When the heats are closely contested, the blood of the tortured animal drips from the lash and flies at every le^p from the stroke of the rowel. From the breaking of girths and other accidents, their riders (mostly slaves) are often thrown and maimed or killed. Yet these amusements arc attended by thousands in every part of the slave states. The wealth and fashion, the gentlemen and ladies of the ' highest circles' at the south, throng the race course. That those who can fasten steel spurs upon the legs of dunghill fowls, and goad th.e poor birds to Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 187 worry and tear each other to death — and tliose who can crowd by thousands to witness such barbarity — that those who can throng the race-course and with keen relish wit. ncss the hot pantings of tlie hfe-struggie, the lacerations and fitful spasms of the muscles, swel- ling through the crimsoned foam, as the tortured steeds rush in blooJ-welterings to the goal — that such should loolv upoa the sufferings of their slaves with indifference is certainly small wonder. Perhaps wo shall be told that there are throng- ed racL'-courses at the North. True, there are a (cw, and they are thronged chiefly by Southerners, and ' Northern men with Southern principles,' and supported mainly by the patronage of slave- holders who summer at the North. Cock-fight, ing and horse-racing are " Southern institutions." Tiie idleness, contempt of labor, dissipation, sen- suality, brutality, cruelty, and meanness, engen- dered by the habit of making men and women work without pay, and flogging them if they de- mur at it, constitutes a congenial soil out of wliich cock-fighting and horse-racing are the Spontaneous growth. Again, — The kind treatment of the slaves is often argued from the liberal education and en- larged views of slaveholders. The facts and rea- sonings of the preceding pages have shown, that ' liberal education,' despotic habits and ungovern. ed passions work together with sliglit friction. And every day's oHservation shows that the form, er is often a stimulant to the latter. But the notion so common at the north that the majority of the slaveholders are persons of education, is entirely erroneous. A very few slaveholders in each of the slave states have been men oi ripe education, to whom our national lite- rature is much indebted. A larger number may be called well educated — these reside mostly in the cities and large villages, but a majority of the slaveholders are ignorant men, thousands of them notoriously so, mere boors unable to write their names or to read the alphabet. No one of the slave states has probably so much general education as Virginia. It is the oldest of them — lias furnished one half of the presidents of (he United States — has expended more upon her university than any state in tlie Union has done during the same time upon its colleges — sent to Europe nearly twenty years since for her most learned professors, and in fine, has far surpassed every other slave state in her efforts to disseminate education among her citizens, and yet, the Gov- emor of Virginia in his message to the legislature (Jan. 7, 1839) says, that of four thousand six hun. dred and fourteen adult males in that state, who applied to the county clerks for marriage licenses in the year 1837, ' one thousand and forty- 8EVEN were unable to write their names.' The governor adds, * These statements, it will be re- membered, arc confined to one sex : the education of females, it is to be feared, is in a'condition of much greater neglect.' The Editor of the Virginia Times, published at Wheeling, in his paper of Jan. 23, 1839,' says, — " We have every reason to suppose that one- fourth of the people of the state cannot WTite their names, and they have not, of course, any other species of education." Kentucky is the child of Virginia ; her first set- tiers were some of the most distinguished citizens of the mother state ; in the general diffusion of in- telligence amongst her citizens Kentucky is pro* bably in advance of all the slave states except Virginia and South Carolina; and yet Governor Clark, in his last message to the Kentucky Legis- lature, (Dec 5, 1838) makes the following declara- tion : ' From the computation of those most fa- miliar with the subject, it appears that at least ONE THIRD OF THE ADULT POPULATION OF THE STATE ARE UNABLE TO WRITE THEIR NAMES.' The following advertisement in the " Milledge- ville (Geo.) Journal," Dec. 26, 1837, is another specimen from one of the ' old thirteen.' " Notice. — I, Pleasant Webb, of the State of Georgia, Oglethorpe county, being an illiterate man, and not able to write my own name, and whereas it hath been represented to me that there is a certain promissory note or notes out against me that I know nothing of, and further that some man in this State holds a bil' of sale for a certain negro woman named Ailsey and her increase, a part of which is now in my possession, which I also know nothing of. Now I do hereby certify and declare, that I have no knowledge whatsoev- er of any such papers existing in my name as above stated and I hereby require all or any per. son or persons whatsoever holding or pretendinor to hold any such papers, to produce them to me within thirty days from the date hereof, shewing their authority for holding the same, or they will be considered fictitious and fraudulently obtained or raised, by some person or persons for base pur. poses after my death. " Given under my hand this 2nd day of Decem- ber, 1837. his "PLEASANT X WEBB, mark Finally, that slaves must habitually suffek great cruelties, follows inevitably from the brutal outrages which their masters inflict on each other. Slaveholders, exercising from childhood irrespon- sible power over human beings, and in the language of President Jefferson, " giving loose to the worst of passions" in the treatment of their slaves, become in a great measure unfitted for self control in their in- tercourse with each other. Tempers accustomed to riot with loose reins, spurn restraints, and passions inflamed by indulgence, take fire on the least friction. We repeat it, the state of society in the slave states, the duels, and daily deadly affrays of slaveholders 18S Objections Considered — Public Opin'ion. with each other — the fact that the most dcHbcrate and cold-blooded murders arc committed at noon day, in the presence of thousands, and the perpetrators eulogized Ijy the community as "honorable men," reveals such a prostration of law, as gives impunity to crime — a state of society, an omnipresent public sentiment reckless of human life, taking bloody vengeance on the spot for every imaginary affront, glorying in such assassinations as the only true honor and chivalry, succcssfidly defying the civil arm, and laughing its impotency to scorn. When such things are done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry ? When slaveholders are in the habit of caning, stabbing, and shooting each other at every supposed insult, the unspeaka- ble enormities perpetrated by such men, with such passions, upon their defenceless slaves, must be beyond computation. To furnish the reader with an illustration of slaveholding civilization and mo- rahty, as exhibited in the unbridled fury, rage, ma- lignant hate, jealousy, diabolical revenge, and all those infernal passions that shoot up rank in the hot-bed of arbitrary power, we will insert here a mass of testimony, detailing a large number of af- frays, lynchings, assassinations, &c., &c., which have taken place in various parts of the slave states within a brief period — and to leave no room fur cavil on the subject, these extracts will be made exclusively from newspapers published in the slave states, and generally in the immediate vicinity of the tragedies described. They will not be made second hand from northern papers, but from the ori- ginal southern papers, which , now lie on our table. Before proceeding to furnish details of certain classes of crimes in the slave states, we advertise the reader — 1st. That we shall not include in the list those crimes which are ordinarily committed in the free, as well as in the slave states. 2d. We shall not include anv of the crimes perpetrated by whites upon slaves and free colored persons, who constitute a majority of the population in Missis, sippi and Louisiana, a large majority in South Caro- lina, and, on an average, two-fifths in the other slave states. 3d. Fist fights, canings, beatings, biting off noses and ears, gougings, knockings down, &c., unless they result in death, will not be included in the list, nor will ordinary murders, un- less connected with circumstances that serve as a special index of public sentiment. 4th Neither will ordinary, forrnal duels be included, except in such cases as just specified. 5th. The only crimes which, as the general rule, will be specified, will be deadly affrays with bowie knives, dirks, pistols, rifles, guns, or other death weapons, and lynch, ivgs. 6th. The crimes enumerated will, for the most part, be only those perpetrated openly, without attempt at concealment. 7th. We shall not at- tempt to give a full list of the affrays, &,c., that took place in the respective states during the period sc. lected, as the only files of southern papers to which we have access are very imperfect. The reader will perceive, from these prelimina- lies, that only a small proportion of the crimes ac- tually perpetrated in the respective slave states during the period selected, will be entered upon this list. He will also perceive, that the crimes which will be presented arc of a class rarely perpe- trated in the free states ; and if perpetrated there at all, they are, with scarcely an exception, com- mitted either by slaveholders, temporarily resident in them, or by persons whose passions have been inflamed by the poison of a southern contact — whose habits and characters have become perverted by hving among slaveholders, and adopting the code of slaveholding morality. We now proceed to the details, commencing with the new state of Arkansas. ARKANSAS. At the last session of the legislature of that state, Col. .Tohn Wilson, President of the Bank at Little Rock, the capital of the state, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. He had been elected to that office for a number of years succes- sively, end was one of the most influential citizens of the state. While presiding over the delibera- tions of the House, he took umbrage at words spo- ken in debate by Major Anthony, a conspicuous member, came down from the Speaker's chair, drew a large bowie knife from his bosom, and at- tacked Major A., who defended himself for some time, but was at last stabbed through the heart, and fell dead on the floor. Wilson deliberately ■wiped the blood from his knife, and returned to his seat. The following statement of the circumstances of the murder, and the trial of the murderer, is abridged from the account published in the Arkan- sas Gazette, a few months since — it is here taken from the Knoxville (Tennessee) Register, July 4. 1838. " On the 14th of December last, Maj. Joseph J. Anthony, a member of the Legislature of Arkan sas, was murdered, while performing his duty as a member of the House of Representatives, by John Wilson, Speaker of that House. The facts were these : A bill came from the Se- nate, commonly called the Wolf Bill. Among the amendments proposed, was one by Maj. Anthony, that the signature of the President of the Real Es tate Bank should be attached to the certificate of the wolf scalp. Col. Wilson, the Speaker, asked Mnj. Anthony whether he intended the remark as personal. Maj. Anthony promptly said, '' No, 1 do not." And at that instant of time, a message was delivered from the Senate, which suspended the proceedings of the House for a few minutes. Immediately after the messenger from the Senate Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion. 189 had retired, Maj. Anthony rose from his seat, and said he wished to explain, that he did not intend to insuk the Speaker or the House ; when Wilson, in- terrupting, peremptorily ordered him to take his seat. Maj. Anthony said, as a member, he had a right to the floor, to explain himself. Wilson said, in an angry tone, ' Sit down, or you had better ;' and thrust his hand into his bosom, and drew out a large bowie knife, 10 or 11 inches in length, and descended from the Speaker's chair to the floor, with the knife drawn in a menacing manner. Maj. Anthony, seeing the danger he was placed in, by Wilson's advance on him with a drawn knife, rose from his chair, set it out of his way, stepped back a pace or two, and drew his knife. Wilson caught up a chair, and struck Anthony with it. Anthony, recovering from the blow, caught the chair in his left hand, and a fight ensued over the chair. Wil- son received two \\-ounds, one on each arm, and Anthony lost his knife, cither by throwing it at Wilson, or it escaped by accident. After Anthony had lost his knife, Wilson advanced on Anthony, who was then retreating, looking over his shoulder. Seeing Wilson pursuing him, he threw a chair. Wilson still pursued, and Anthony raised another chair as high as his breast, with a view, it is sup. posed, of keeping Wilson off. Wilson then caught hold of the chair with his left hand, raised it up, and with his right hand deliberately thrust the knife, up to the hilt, into Anthony's heart, and as deliber- ately drew it cut, and wiping ofl' the blood with his thumb and finger, retired near to the Speaker's chair. " As the knife was withdrawn from Anthony's heart, he fell a lifeless corpse on the floor, without uttering a word, or scarcely making a struggle ; so true did the knife, as dehberately directed, pierce his heart. '•Three days elapsed before the constituted au- thorities took any notice of this horrible deed ; and not then, until a relation of the murdered Anthony had demanded a warrant for the apprehension of Wilson. Several days then elapsed before he was brought before an examining court. He then, in a carriage and four, came to the place appointed for his trial. Four or five days were employed in the examination of witnesses, and never was a clearer case of murder proved than on that occasion. Not- withstanding, the court (Justice Brown dissenting) admitted Wilson to bail, and positively refused that the prosecuting attorney for the state should introduce the law, to show that it was not a bail, able case, or even to hear an argument from hiin. " At the time appointed for the session of the Cir- cuit Court, Wilson appeared agreeably to his re- cognizance. A motion was made by Wilson's counsel for change of venue, founded on the afli- davits of Wilson, and tv/o otiier men. The court thereupon removed the case to Saline county, and ordered the Sheriff to take Wilson into custody, and deliver him over to the Sheriff of Saline county. "The Sheriff of Pulaski never confined Wilson one minute, but permitted him to go where he pleas- ed, without a guard, or any restraint imposed on him whatever. On his way to Saline, he entertain- ed him freely at his own house, and the next day delivered him over to the Sheriff of that county, who conducted the prisoner to the debtor's room in the Jail, and gave biin tht key, so that he and every body else had free egress and ingress at all times. Wilson invited every body to call on him, as he wished to see his friends, and his room was crowd, ed with visitors, who called to drink grog, and laugh and talk with him. But this theatre was not suffi- ciently large for his purpose. He afterwards visit- ed the dram-shops, where he freely treated all that would partake with him, and went fishing and hunting with others at pleasure, and entirely with otit restraint. He also ate at the same table with the .Judge, while on trial. " When the court met at Saline, Wilson was put on his trial. Several days were occupied in exam- ining the witnesses in the case. After the exam- ination was closed, while Col. Taylor was engaged in a very able, lucid, and argumentative speech, on the part of the prosecution, some man collected a parcel of the rabble, and came within a few yards of the court-house door, and bawled in a loud voice, ' part them — part them !' Every body supposed there was an affray, and ran to the doors and win- dows to see ; behold, there was nothing more than the man, and the rabble he had collected around him, for the purpose of annoying Col. Taylor while speaking. A few minutes aftervv'ards, this same person brought a horse near the court-house door, and commenced crying the horse, as though he was for sale, and continued for ten or fifteen minutes to ride before the court-house door, crying the horse, in a loud and boisterous tone of voice. The Judge OTt as a silent listener to the indignity thus offered the court and counsel by this man, without inter- posing his authority. " To show the depravity of the times, and the peo- ple, after the verdict had been delivered by the jury, and the court informed Wilson that he was dis- charged, there was a rush toward him : some seized him by the hand, some by the arm, and there was great and loud rejoicing and exultation, directly in the presence of the court : and Wilson told the Sherilfto take the jury to a grocery, that he might treat them, and invited every body that chose to go. The house was soon filled to overflowing. The rejoicing was kept up till near supper time : but to cap the climax, soon after supper was over, a ma- jority of the jury, together with many others, went to the rooms that had been occupied several days by the friend and relation of the murdered Antho- ny, and commenced a scene of the most ridiculous dancing, (as it is believed,) in triumph for Wilson, and as a triumph over the feelings of the relations of the departed Anthony. The scene did not close here. The party retired to a dram-shop, and con- tinned their rejoicing until about half after 10 o'clock. They then collected a parcel of horns, trumpets, &c., and marched through the streets, blowing them, till near day, when one of the com- pany rode his horse in the porch adjoining the room which was occupied by the relations of the de- ceased." This case is given to the reader at length, in or- der fully to show, that in a community where the law sanctions the commission of every species of outrage upon one class of citizens, it fosters pas- ions which will paralvze its power to protect the other classes. Look at the facts developed in this case, as exhibiting the state of society among slave- holders. 1st. That the members of the legislature 190 Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion. are in the habit of wearing bowie knives. Wil- son's knife was 10 or 11 inches long.* 2d. The murderer, Wilson, was a man of wealth, president of the bank at the capital of the state, a high niili. tary officer, and had, for many years, been Speaker of the House of Representatives, as appears from a previous statement in the Arkansas Gazette. 3d. The murder was committed in open day, before all the members of the House, and many spectators, not one of whom seems to have made the least atteuipt to intercept Wilson, as he advanced upon Anthony \\iith his knife drawn, but " made way for iiim," as is stated in another account. 4th. Though the murder was committed in the state-house, at the capital of the state, days passed before the civil authorities moved in the matter ; and they did not finally do it, until the relations of the murdered man demanded a warrant for the apprehension of the murderer. Even then, several days elapsed before he was brought before an examining court. When his trial came on, he drove to it in state, drew up before the door with "his coach and four," alighted, and strided into court like a lord among his vassals ; and there, though a clearer case of de- liberate murder never reeked in the face of the sun, yet he was admitted to bail, the court absolutely, refusing to hear an argument from the prosecuting attorney, showing that it was not a bailable case. 5th. The sheriff of Pulaski county, wfho had Wil- son in custody, " never confined him a moment, but permitted him to go at large wholly unrestrain- ed." When transferred to Saline co. for trial, the sheriff of that county gave Wilson the same liberty, and he spent his time in parties of pleasure, fish- ing, hunting, and at houses of entertainment. 6th. Finally, to demonstrate to the world, that justice among slaveholders is consistent with itself; that authorizing man-stealing and patronising robbery, It will, of course, be the patron and associate of murder also, the judge who sat upon the case, and the murderer who was on trial for his life before him, were boon-companions together, eating and drinking at the same table throughout the trial. Then came the conclusion of the farce — the up- roar round the court-house during the trial, drown- ing the voice of the prosecutor while pleading, without the least attempt by the court to put it down — then the charge of the judge to the jury, and their unanimous verdict of acquittal — then the rush from all quarters around the murderer with congratulations — the whole crowd in the court room shouting and cheering — then Wilson leading the way to a tavern, inviting the sheriff, and jury, and all present to " a treat" — then the bacchanalian revelry kept up all night, a majority of the jurors ♦ A correspondent of the " Frederick Herald," writing from Little Rock, says, "Anthony's knife was about fuDi'Tilij-eight indies in length. They all carry knives here, or pistols. There are several kinds of knives in use— a narrow blade, and about twelve inches long, is tailed an " Arkansas looth-pick." participating — the dancing, the triumphal proces sion through the streets with the blowing of horns and trumpets, and the prancing of horses through the porch of the house occupied by the relations of the murdered Anthony, adding insidt and mock, ery to their agony. A few months before this murder on the floor of the legislature, George Scott, Esq., formerly mar- shal of the state was shot in an affray at Van Bu- ren, Crawford co., Arkansas, by a man named Walker; and Robert Carothers, in an affray in St. Francis co., shot William Rachel, juat as Rachel was shooting at Carothers' father. (Nalional Intel, ligencer, May 8, 1837, and Little Hock Gazette, August 30, 1837.) While Wilson's trial was in progress, Mr. .Ga- briel Sibley was stabbed to the heart at a public dinner, in St. Francis co., Arkansas, by James W Grant. {Arkansas Gazette, May 30, 1838.) Hardly a week before this, the following oc curred : " On the 16th ult., an encounter took place at Little Rock, Ark., between David F. Douglass, a young man of 18 or 19, and Dr. Wm. C. Howell. A shot was exchanged between them at the dis- tance of 8 or 10 feet with double-barrelled guns. The load of Douglass entered the left hip of Dr. Howell, and a buckshot from the gun of the latter struck a negro girl, 13 or 14 years of age, just be- low the pit of the stomach. Douglass then fired a second time and hit Howell in the left groin, penetrating the abdomen and bladder, and causing his death in four hours. The negro girl, at the last dates, was not dead, but no hopes were enter- tained of her recovery. Douglass was committed to await his trial at the April term of the Circuit Court." — Louisville Journal. " The Little Rock Gazette of Oct. 24, says, " We are again called upon to record the cold blooded murder of a valuable citizen. On the 10th instant. Col. .John Lasater, of Frankhn co., was murdered by John W. Whiison, who delibe- rately shot him with a shot gun, loaded with a handful of rifle balls, six of wliich entered his body. He lived twelve hours after he was shot. " Whitson is the son of William Whitson, who was unfortunately killed, about a year since, in a rencontre with Col. Lasater, (who was fully exone- rated from all blame by a jury,) and, in revenge of his fatlier's death, committed this bloody deed." These atrocities were all perpetrated within a few months of the time of the deliberate assassi- nation, on the floor of the legislature by the speaker, already described, and are probably but a small portion of the outrages conmiitted in that state during the same period. The state of Ar- kansas contains about forty-five thousand white inhabitants, which is, if we mistake not, the pre- sent population of Litchfield county, Connecticut And we venture the assertion, that a public affray, with deadly weapons, has not taken place in that county for fifty years, if indeed ever since its settle ment, a century and a half ago. Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 191 MISSOURI. Missouri became one of the United States in 1821. Its present white population is about two hundred and fifty thousand. The following are a few of the affrays that have occurred there during the years 1837 and '38, The "Salt River Journal," March 8, 1838, has the following. •■'■Fatal Affray. — An affray took place during last week, in the town of New London, between Dr. Peake and Dr. Boslcy, both of that village, growing out of some trivial matter at a card party. Ahiiv some words, Bosley threw a glass at Peake, which was followed up by other acts of viuk ncc, and in the quarrel Pealie stabbed Bosley, several limes with a dirk, in consequence of which, Bos- ley died the following morning. The court of inquiry considered Peake justifiable, and dis- charged him from arrest." From tlie " St. Louis Republican," of September 29, 1837. "W« learn that a fight occurred at Bowling. Green, in this state, a few days since, between Dr. Michael Reynolds and Henry Lalor. Lalor pro- cured a gun, and Mr. Dickerson wrested the gun from him ; this produced a fight between Lalor and Dickerson, in which the former stabbed the latter in the abdomen. Mr. Dickerson died of the wound." The following was in the same paper aboat a month previous, August 21, 1837. " ^-1 Horse Thief Shot. — A thief was caught in the act of stealing a horse on Friday last, on the opposite side of the river, by a company of persons out sporting. Mr. Kremer, who was in the com- pany, levelled his rifle and ordered him to stop ; which he refused ; he then tired and lodged the contents in the thief's body, of which he died soon afterwards. Mr. K. went before a magistrate, who after hearing the case, refused to hold him for FURTHER TRIAL I" On the 5th of .July, 1833, Alpha P. Buckley mur- dered William Yaochum in an affray in Jackson county, Missouri. (Missouri Republican, Julv 24, 1S3S.) General Atkinson of the United States Army was waylaid on the 4th of September, 1838, by a number of persons, and attacked in his carriage near St. Louis, on the road to Jefferson Barracks, but escaped after shooting one of the assailants. The New Orleans True American of October 29, '38, speaking of this says : " It will be recollected that a few weeks ago. Judge Dougherty, one of the most respectable citizens of St. Lcuis, was mur- dered upon the same road." The same paper contains the following letter from the murderer of Judge Dougherty. " Murder of Judge Dougherty. — The St. Louis Repubhcan received the following mysterious (letter, unsealed, regarding this brutal murder :" — " Natchez, Miss., Sept. 24. " Messrs. Editors : — Revenge is sweet. On the night of the 11th, 12th, and 13th, I made prepara- tions, and did, on the 14th July kill a rascal, and only regret that I have not the privilege of telling the circumstance. I have so placed it that I can never be identified ; and further, 1 have no com. punctions of conscience for the death of Thomas M. Dougherty." But instead of presenting individual affrays and single atrocities, hov.ever numerous, (and the Mis- souri papers abound with them,) in order to exhibit the true state of society there, we refer to the fact now universally notorious, that for months during the last fall and winter, some hundreds of inoffen. sive Mormons, occupying a considerable tract of land, and a flourishing village in the interior of the state, have suffered every species of inhuman outrage from the inhabitants of the surrounding counties — that for weeks together, mobs consisting of hundreds and thousands, kept them in a state of constant siege, laying waste their lands, destroying their cattle and provisions, tearing down their houses, ravishing the females, seizing and dragging off and killing the men. Not one of the thousands engaged in these horrible outrages and butcherings has, so far as we can learn, been indicted. The following extract: of a letter from a military officer of one of the brigades ordered out b}' the Governor of Missouri, to terminate the matter, is taken from the North Alabamian of December 22, 1838. Correspondence of the Nashville Whig. THE MORMON WAR. " MiLLERSEURG, Mo. November 8. " Dear Sir — A lawless mob had organized themselves for the express purpose of driving the Mormons from the country, or extermina- ting them, for no other reason, that I can perceive, than that these poor deluded creatures owned a large and fertile body of land in their neighborhood, and would not let them (the Mobocrats) have it for their own price. I have just returned from the seat of difficulty, and am perfectly conversant with all the facts in relation to it. The mob meeting with resistance altogether unanticipated, called loudly upon the kindred spirits of adjacent counties for help. The Mormons de- termined to die in defence of their rights, set abovt fortifying their town "Far West," with a resolution and energy that kept the mob (who all the time were extending their cries of help to all parts ot Missouri) at bay. The Governor, from exagge- rated accounts of the Mormon depredations, issued orders for the raising of several thousand mounted riflemen, of which this division raised five hundred, and the writer of this was honored with the ap. pointment of to the Brigade. " On the first day of this month, we marched for the " seat of war," but General Clark, Commander- in-chief, having reached Far West on the day pre- vious with a large force, the difficulty was settled 192 Ohjections Considered — Public Opinion. when we arrived, so we escaped the infamy and disgrace of a bloody victory. Before General Clark's arrival, the mob had increased to about four thousand, and deterniihed to attack the town. The Mormons upon il:c approach of the mob, sent out n white flag, which being fired on by the mob, Jo tSaiith and Rigdon, and a few other Mormons of less influence, gave themselves up to the mob, with a view of so far ajipeasing their wrath as to save iheir women and children from violence. Vain liope ! The prisoners being secured, the mob entered the town and perpetrated every conceivable act of brutality and outrage — forcing fifteen or twenty Mormon girls to yield to their brutal pas. sionslll Of these things I was assured by many persons while I was at Far West, in whose veracity I have the utmost confidence. I conversed with many of the prisoners, who numbered about eight hundred, among whom there were many young and interesting girls, and I assure you, a more distracted set of creatures I never saw. I as sure you, my dear sir, it was peculiarly heart- rending to see old gray headed fathers and mothers, young ladies and innocent babes, forced at this inclement season, with the thermometer at 8 de- grees below zero, to abandon their warm houses, and many of them the luxuries and elegances of a high degree of civilization and intelligence, and j take up their march for the uncultivated wilds of the Missouri frontier. " The better informed here have but one opinion of the result of this Mormon persecution, and that Ls, it is a most fearful extension of Judge Lynch's jurisdiction." The present white population of Missouri is but thirty thousand less than that of New Hamp. shire, and yet the insecurity of human life in the former state to that in the latter, is probably at leasi twenty to one. ALABAMA. This state was admitted to the Union in 1819. It3 present white population is not far from three hundred thousand. The security of human hfe in Alabama, may be inferred from the facts and tes- timony which follow : The Mobile Register of Nov. 15, 1837, contains the annual message of Mr. McVay, the acting Governor of the state, at the opening of the Legis- lature. The message has the follov.'ing on the frequency of homicides: " We hear of homicides in different parts of the state continually, and yet how few convictions for murder, and still fewer executions ? How is this to be accounted for? In regard to ' assault and battery with intent to commit murder,' why is it that this offence continues so common — why do we hear of stabbings and shootings almost daily in some part or other of our state ?" The " Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser" of April 22, 1837, has the following from the Mobile Register : " Within a few days a man was shot in an nffray in the upper part of the town, and has since died. The perpetrator of the violence is at large. We need hardly speak of another scene which occurred in Royal street, when a fray occurred be- tween two individuals, a third standing by with a cocked |)istol to prevent interference. On Satur- day night a still more exciting scene of outrage took place in the theatre. "An altercation commenced at the porquett en- trance between the check-taker and a young man, which ended in tlie first being desperately wpund- ed by a stab with a knife. The other also drew a pistol. If some strange manifestations of public "ipinion, do not coerce a spirit of deference to law, and the abandonment of the habit of carrying secret arms, we shall deserve every reproach we may receive, and have our punishment in the un- checked growth of a spirit of lawlessness, reckless deeds, and exasperated feeling, which will des- troy our social comfort at home, and respecta- bility abroad." From the " Hnntsville Democrat," of Nov. 7, 1837. "A trilling dispute arose between Silas Randal and Pharaoh Massingale, both of Marshall county. They exchanged but a few words, when the former drew a Bowie knife and stabbed the latter in the abdomen fronting the left hip to the depth of several inches ; also inflicted several other dan- gerous wounds, of which Massengale died imme- diately. — Randal is yet at large, not having been apprehended." From the " Free Press" of August 16, 1838. " The streets of Gainesville, Alabama, have re- cently been the scene of a most tragic affair. Some five weeks since, at a meeting of the citi. zens. Col. Christopher Scott, a lawyer of good standing, and one of the most influential citizen? of the place, made a violent attack on the Toni- beckbee Rail Road Company. A Mr. Smith, agent for the T. R. R. Company, took Col. C's re- marks as a personal insult, and demanded an ex- planation. A day or two after, as Mr. Smith wa-s passing Colonel Scott's door, he was shot down by him, and after lingering a few hours expired. " It appears also from an Alabama paper, that Col. Scott's brother, L. S. Scott Esq., and L. J. Smith Esq., were accomplices of the Colonel in the murder." The following is froin the " Natchez Free Tra- der," June 14, 1S38. " -An afiray, attended with fatal consequences, oc- curred in the town of Moulton, Alabama, on the 12th May. It appears that three young men from the country, of the name of J. Walton, Geo. Bowling, and Alexander Bowling, rode into Moul. ton on that day for the purpose of chastising the bar-keeper at McCord's tavern, whose name is Cowan, for an alleged insult oflercd by him to the father of young Walton. They made a furi- ous attack on Cowan, and drove him into the bar room of the tavern. Some time after, a second attack was made upon Cowan in the street by ono of the Bowlings and Walton, when pistols were resorted to by both parties. Three rounds wcru fired, and the third shot, which was said to have Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 193 been discharged by Walton, struck a young man by the name of Neil, who happened to be passing in the street at the time, and killed him instantly. The combatants were taken into custody, and after an examination before two magistrates, were bailed." The following exploits of the " Alabama Volun- teers," are recorded in the Florida Herald, Jan. 1, 1838. " Save us from our Friends. — On Monday last, a large body of men, calling themselves Alabama Volunteers, arrived in the \ncinity of this city. It is rejjorted that their conduct during their inarch from Tallahassee to this city has been a scries of excesses of every description. They have committed almost every crime except murder, and have even threatened life. " Large numbers of them paraded our streets, grossly insulted our females, and were otherwise extremely riotous in their conduct. One of the squads, forty or fifty in number, on reaching the bridge, where there was a small guard of three or four men stationed, assaulted the guard, overturn- ed the sentry-box into the river, and bodily seized two of the giiPad, and threw them into the river, where the waicr was deep, and they were forced to swim for their lives. At one of the men while in the water, tlir.y pointed a musket, threatening to IviU him ; aiul pelted with every missile which came to hand." The following Alabama tragedy is published by tlie "Columbia (S. C.) Telescope." Sept. 16, 1837, from the VVctumpka Sentinel. " Our highly respectable townsman, Mr. Hugh Ware, a merchant of Wetumpka, was standing in the door of his counting-room, between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock at night, in company with a friend, when an assassin lurked within a few pa- j ces of his position, and discharged his musket, > loaded with ten or fifteen bucksiiot. Mr. Ware j instantly fell, and expired without a struggle or a \ groan. A coroner's inquest decided that the de- ceased came to his death by violence, and that Abner J. Cody, and his servant John, were the perpetrators. John frankly confessed, that his master, Cody, compelled him to assist, threatening his life if be dared to disobey ; that he carried the musket to the place at which it was discharged ; that his master then received it from him, rested it on the fence, fired and killed Mr. Ware.'" From the " Southern (Miss.) l\Iechanic." April 17, 1838. " Horrid Butchery. — A desperate fight oc- curred in Montgomery, Alabama, on the 28th ult. We learn from the Advocate of that city, that the persons engaged were Wm. S. Mooney and Kenyon Mooney, his son, Edward Bell, and Bushrod Bell, Jr. The first received a wound in {he abdomen, made by that fatal instrument, the Bowie knife, which caused his death in about fifteen hours. The second was shot in the side, and would doubtless have been killed, had not the ball partly lost its force by first striking his arm. The third received a shot in the neck, and now lies without hope of recovery. The fourth escaped anhurt, and, we understand ha.") fled. Tiiis is a 13 brief statement of one of the bloodiest fights that we ever heard of." From the " Virginia Statesman," May 6, 1837. " Several affrays, wherein pistols, dirks and knives were used, lately occurred at Mobile. One took place on the 8th inst., at the theatre, in which a Mr. Bellum was so badly stabbed that his life is despaired of. On the Wednesday preceding, a man named Johnson shot another named Snov/ dead. No notice was taken of the affair." From the "Huntsville Advocate," June 20, 1837. " Desperate Affray. — On Sunday the 11th inst., an affray of des()erate and fatal character occurred near Chater's Landing, Marshall county, Alabama. The dispute which led to it arose out of a contested right to possession of a piece of land. A Mr. Steele was the occupant, and Mr. James McFarlane and some others, claimants. Mr. F. and his friends went to Mr. Steele's hous*- with a view to take possession, whether peaceably or by violence, we do not certainly know. As they entered the house a quarrel ensued between two of the opposite parties, and some blows per- haps followed ; in a short time, several guns were discharged from the house at j\Ir. McFarlane and friends. Mr. M. was Irilled, a Mr. Freamster dangerously wounded, and it is thought will not recover ; two others were also wounded, though not so as to endanger life. Mr. Steele's brother was wounded by the discharge of a pistol irom one of Mr. M's. friends. We have heard some other particulars about the affray, but we abstain from giving them, is incidental versions arc often erroneous, and as the whole matter will be sub- mitted to legal investigation. Four of Steele's party, his brother, and three whose names are Lenien. Collins and Wills, have been arrested, and are now confined in the goal in this place." From the " Norfolk Beacon," July 14, 183S. " A few days since at Claysville, Marshal co.. Alabama, Messrs. Nathaniel and Graves W. Steele, while riding in a carriage, were shot dead, and Alex. Steele and Wm. Collins, also in the carriage, were severely wounded, (the former sup- posed mortally,) by Messrs. Jesse Allen, Alexan- der and Arthur i\IcFarlane, and Daniel Dicker- son. The Slceles, it appears, last year killed James IMcFarlane and another person in a simi- lar manner, which led to this dreadful retaliation." From the " Montgomery (Ala.) Advocate — Washington, Autauga Co., Dec. 28, 1838. " Fatal Re^tcontre. — On Friday last, tlie 28th ult., a fatal rencontre took place in the town ot Washington, Autauga county, between John Tittle and Thomas J. Tarlcton, which resulted in the death of the former. After a patient investi- gation of the matter, Mr. Tarleton was released by the investigating tribunal, on the ground that the homicide was clearly justifiable." The •• Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel," July 6, 1837, quotes the following from the Mobile (Ala.) Ex- aminer. '• A man by the name of Peter Church was killed on one of the wharves night before last. The person by whom it was done delivered him. self to the proper authorities yesterday morning 194 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. The deceased and his destroyer were friends, and the act occurred in consequence of an immaterial quarrel." The " Miiledgeville Federal Union" of July 11, 1837, has the following: " In Selma, Alabama, resided lately messrs. Philips and Dickerson, physicians. Mr. P. is brother to the wife of W. Bleevin Esq., a rich cotton planter in that neighborhood ; the latter has a very lovely daughter, to whom Dr. D, paid his addresses. A short time since a gentleman from Mobile married her. Soon after this, a schoolmaster in Selma set a story afloat to the effect, that he had heard Dr. D. say things about the lady's conduct before marriage which ought Tiot to be said about any lady. Dr. D. denied having said such things, and the other denied having spread the story ; but neither denials suffi- ced to pacify the enraged parent. He met Dr. D. fired at him two pistols, and wounded him. Dr. D. was unarmed, and advanced to Mr. Bleevin, holding up his hands imploringly, when Mr. B. drew a Bowie knife, and stabbed him to the heart. The doctor dropped dead on the spot : and Mr. Bleevin has been held to bail." The following is taken from the " Alabama In- telligencer," Sept. 17, 1838. " On the 5th instant, a deadly rencounter took place in the streets of Russelville, (our county ixtwn,) between John A. Chambers, Esq., of the city of mobile, and Thomas L. Jones, of this county. In the rencounter, Jones was wounded by several balls which took effect in his chin, mouth, neck, arm, and shoulder, believed to be mortal ; he did not fire his gun. " Mr. Chambers forthwith surrendered himself to the Sheriff of the county, and was on the 6th, tried and fully acquitted, by a court of inquiry." The " Maysville (Ky.) Advocate" of August 14, 1838, gives the following affray, which took place in Girard, Alabama, July 10th. "Two brothers named Thomas and Hal Lucas, who had been much in the habit of quarrelling, came together under strong exciteriient, and Tom, as was his frequent custom, being about to flog Hal with a stick of some sort, the latter drew a pistol and shot the former, his own brother, through the heart, who almost instantly expired !" The " New Orleans Bee" of Oct. 5, 1838, re- lates an affray in Mobile, Alabama, between Ben- jamin Alexander, an aged man of ninety, with Thomas Hamilton, his grandson, on the 24th ol September, in which the former killed the latter with a dirk. The " Red River Whig" of July 7, 1833, gives the particulars of a tragedy in Western Alabama, in which a planter near Lake\ille, left home for some days, but suspecting his wife's fidelity, returned home late at night, and finding his suspicions veri- fied, set fire to his house and waited with his rifle before the door, till his wife and her paramour au tempted to rush out, when he shot them both de.id. From the " Morgan (Ala.) Observer," Dec. 1838. "We are informed from private sources, that on last Saturday, a poor mp.n who v/as moving westward with his wife and' three little children, and driving a small drove of sheep, and perhaps a cow or two, which wae driven by his family, on arriving in Florence, and while passing through, met with a citizen of that place, who rode into his flock and caused him some trouble to l;eep it to- gether, when the mover informed the individual that he must not do so again or he would throw a rock at him, upon which some words ensued, and the individual again disturbed the flock, when the mover, as near as we can learn, threw at him upon this the troublesome man got ofl' his horse, went into a grocery, got a gun, and came out and deliberately shot the poor stranger in the presence of his wife and little children. The wounded man then made an eflbrt to get into some house, when his murderous assailant overtook and stabbed him to the heart wiih a Bowie knife. This revolting scene, we are informed, occurred in t!-e presence of many citizens, who, report says, never even lifted their voices in defence of the murdered man." A late number of the "Flag of the Union," pub- lished at Tuscaloosa, the seat of the government of Alabama, states, that since the commencement of the late session of tlie legi-shuure of that state, " no less than thirteen fights had been had within sight of the capitol." Pistols and Bowit knives were used in every case. The present white population of Alabama is about the same with that of New Jersey, y^ for the last twenty years there have not been so many public deadly affrays, and of such a horriblo character, in New Jersey, as have taken place in Alabama within the last eight months. MISSISSIPPI. Mississippi became one of the United States in 1817. Its present white population is about one hundred and sixty thousand. The following extracts will serve to show that those who combine together to beat, rob, and mana- ge innocent men, women and children, will stick at nothing when their passions are up. The following murderous affray at Canton, Mis- sissippi, is from the "Alabama Beacon," Sept, 13, 1638. "A terrible tragedy recently occurred at Canton, I Miss., growing out of the late duel between Messra j Dickins and Drane of that jjlace. A Kentuckian happening to bo in Canton, spoke of the duel, and charged Mr. Mitchell Calhoun, the second of Drane, with cowardice and unfairness. Mr. Calhoun call- i ed on the Kentuckian for an explanation, and the offensive charge was repeated. A challenge and fight with Bowie knives, toe to toe, were the con- sequences. Both parties were dreadfully and dan- gerously wounded, though neither was dead at the last advices. Mr. Calhoun is a brother to tlie Hon John Calhoun, member of Congress.". Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 195 Here follows the account of the duel referred to above, between Messrs. Dickins and Drane. " Intelligence has been received in this town of a fatal duel that took place in Canton, Miss., on the 28A ult., between Rufus K. Dickins, and a Mr. Westley Drane. They fought with double barrel- led guns, loaded with buckshot — both were mor- tally wounded." The " Louisville Journal" publishes the follow- ing, Nov. 23. " On the 7th instant, a fatal affray took place at Gallatin, Mississippi. The principal parties con- cerned were, Messrs. Jijhn W. Scott, James G. Scott, and Edmund B. Hatch. The latter was shot down and then stabbed twice through the body, by J. G. Scott." The «' Alabama Beacon" of Sept. 13, 1838, says : " An attempt was made in Vicksburg lately, by a gang of Lynchers, to -inflict sunmiary punishment on three men of the name of Fleckenstein. The assault was made upon the house, about 11 o'clock at night. Meeting with some resistance from the three Fleckensteins, a leader of the gang, by the name of Helt, discharged his pistol, and wounded one of the brothers severely in the neck and jaws. A volley of four or five shots was almost instantly returned, when Helt fell dead, a piece of the top of the skull being torn off. and almost the whole of his brains dashed out. Plis comrades seeing him fall, suddenly took to their heels. There were, it is supposed, some ten or fifteen concerned in the transaction." The " Manchester (Miss.) Gazette," August 11, 1838, says : " It appears that Mr. Asa Hazeltine, who kept a public or boarding house in Jackson, during the past winter, and Mr. Benjamin Tanner, came here about five or six weeks since, with the intention of opening a public house. Foiled in the design, in the settlement of their affairs some difficulty arose as to a question of veracity between the- parties. Mr. Tanner deeply excited, procured a pistol and loaded it with the charge of death, sought and found itie 9bject of his hatred in the afternoon, in the yard of Messrs. Kezer & Maynard, and in the presence of several persons, after repeated and in- effectual attempts on the part of Capt. Jackson to baffle his fell spirit, shot the unfortunate victim, of which wound Mr. Hazeltine died in a short time. O" " We understand that Mr. Hazeltine was a native of Boston." The "Columbia (S. C.) Telescope," Sept. 16, 1837, gives the details below : "By a letter from Mississippi, we have an ac- count of a rencontre which took place in Rodney, on the 27th July, between Messrs. Thos. J. John- ston and G. H. Wilcox, both formerly of this city. In consequence of certain publications made by these gentlemen against each other, Johnston chal- lenged Wilcox. The latter declining to accept the challenge, Johnston informed his friends at Rod. ney, that he would be there at the term of the court then not distant, when he would make an attack upon him. He repaired thither on the 26th, and on the next morning the following communication was read aloud in the presence of Wilcox and a large crowd : '^ Rodney, July 21, 1837. •' Mr. Johnston informs Mr. Wilcox, that at or about 1 o'clock of this day, he will be on the common, opposite the Presbyterian Church of this town, waiting and expecting Mr. Wilcox to meet him there. " 1 pledge my honor that Mr. Johnston will not fire at Mr. Wilcox, until he arrives at a distance of one hundred yards from him, and I desire Mr. Wil. cox or any of his friends, to see that distance ac- curately measured. " Mr. Johnston will wait there thirty minutes. ".L M. DUFFIELD. " Mr. Wilcox declined being a party to any such arrangement, and Mr. D. told him to be prepared for an attack. Accordingly, about an hour after this, Johnston proceeded towards Wilcox's office, armed with a double-barrelled gun, (one of the bar- rels rifled,) and three pistols in his belt. He halted about fifty yarils from W's door and leveled his gun. W. withdrew before Johnston could fire, and seized a musket, returned to the door and flashed. Johnston fired both barrels without effect. Wilcox then seized a double barrel gun, and Johnston a musket, and both again fired. Wilcox sent twen- ty-three buck shot over Johnston's head, one of them passing through his hat, and Wilcox was slightly wounded on both hands, his thigh and ]eg.'» From the "Alabama Beacon," May 27, 1838. " An affray of the most barbarous nature was expected to take place in Arkansas opposite Prince, ton, on Thursday last. The two original parties have been endeavoring for several weeks, to settle their differences at Natchez. One of the individu. als concerned stood pledged, our informant stales, to fight three different antagonists in one day. The fights, we understand, were to be with pistols ; but a variety of other weapons were taken along — among others, the deadly Bowie knife. These laU ter instruments, we are t>)ld, were whetted and dressed up at Grand Gulf, as the parties passed up, avowedly with the intention of being used in the field." From the " Southern (Miss) Argus," Nov. 21, 1837. " We learn that, at a wood yard above Natchez, on Sunday evening last, a difficulty arose between Captain Crosly, oi the steamboat Galenian, and one of his deck passengers. Capt. C. drew a Bowie knife, and made a pass at the throat of the passenger, which failed to do any harm, and the captain then ordered him to leave his boat. The man went on board to get his baggage, and the captain immediately sought the cabin for a pistol. As the passenger was about leaving the boat, the captain presented a pistol to his breast, which snapped. Instantly the enraged and wronged in- dividual seized Capt. Crosly by the throat, and brought him to the ground, when he drew a dirk and stabbed him eight or nine times in the breast, each blow driving the weapon into his body up to the hilt. The passenger was arrested, carried to Natchez, tried and acquitted." The "Planter's Intelligencer" pul)lishes the follow- ing from the Vicksburg Sentmel of June 19, 1838. " About 1 o'clock, we observed two men • pum. meling" one another in the street, to the infinite 196 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. ariiusement of a crowd. Presently a third hero made his appearance in the arena, with Bowie knife in hand, and he cried out, ' Let me come at him !' Upon hearing this threat, one of the pugi. lists ' took himself off,' our hero following at full speed. Finding his pursuit was vain, our hero re- turned, when an attack was commenced upon an- other individual. He was most cruelly beat, and cut through the skull with a knife ; it is feared the wounds will prove mortal. The sufferer, we learn, in an inofi'ensive German." From the " Mississippian," Nov. 9, 1838. " On Tuesday evening last, 23d, an affray oc- curred at the town of Tallahasse, in this county, between Hugh Roark and Captain Flack, which resulted in the death of Roark. Roark went to bed, and Flack, who was in the bar-room below, observed to some persons there, that he believed they had set up Roark to whip him ; Roark, upon hearing his name mentioned, got out of bed and came down stairs. Flack mot and stabbed him in the lower part of his abdomen with a knife, letting out his bowels. Roark ran to the door, and re- ceived another stab in the back. He lived until Thursday night, when he expired in great agony. Flack was tried before a justice of the peace, and v.e understand was only held to bail to appear at court in the event Roark should die." From the "Grand Gulf Advertiser," Nov. 7, 1838. " Attempt at Riot at Natchez. — The Courier says, that in consequence of the discharge of cer- tain individuals who had been arraigned for the murder of a man named MediH, a mob of about 200 persons assembled on the night of the 1st in- stant, with the avowed purpose of li/ncJtiiig them. But fortunately, the objects of their "vengeance had escaped from town. Foiled in their purpose, the rioters repaired to the shantee where the murder was committed, and precipitated it over the bluff. The military of the city were ordered out to keep order." From the " Natchez Free Trader." " A violent attack was lately made on Captain Barrett, of the steamboat Southerner, by three per- sons from Wilkinson co., Miss., whose names are Carey, and one of the name of .f. S. Towles. The only reason for the outrage was, that Captain B. had the assurance to require of the gendemen, who v/ere quarreling on board his boat, to keep order for the peace and comfort of the other passengers. Towles drew a Bowie knife upon the Captain, v.'hich the latter wrested from him. A pistol, drawn by one of the Careys was also taken, and the as- eiiilant was knocked overboard. Fortunately for him he was rescued from drowning. The brave band then landed. On her return up the river, the Southerner stopped at Fort Adams, and on her leaving that place, an armed party, among whom were the Careys and Towles, fired into the boat, bat happily the shot missed a crowd of passengers on the hurricane deck." From the "Mississippian," Dec. 18, 1838. " Greer Spikes, a citizen of this county, was kill- ed a few days ago, between this place and Ray. iiiond, by a man named Pegram. It seems that Pegram and Spikes had been carrying weapons for ea..h other for some time past. Pegram had threat. ened to take Spikes' life on first sight, for the base treatment he had received at his hands. " We have heard soinething of the particulars, but not enough to give them at this time. Pegram had not been seen since." The " Lynchburg Virginian," July 23, 1838, says : " A fatal affray occurred a few days ago in Clin- ton, Mississippi. The actors in it were a Mr. Par- ham, Mr. Shackleford, and a Mr. Henry. Shac. kleford was killed on the spot, and Henry was slightly wounded by a shot gun with which Par- ham was armed." From the " Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel," Nov. 22, 1838. " Butchery. — A Bowie knife slaughter took place a kw days since in Honesville, Miss. A Mr. Hobbs was the victim ; Strother the butcher." The " Vicksburg Sentinel," Sept. 28, 1837, says : "It is only a few weeks since humanity was shocked by a most atrocious outrage, inflicted by the Lynchers, on the person of a Mr. Saunderson of Madison co. in this state. They dragged this respectable planter from the bosom of his family, and mutilated him in the most brutal manner — maiming him most inhumanly, besides cutting ofl his nose and ears and scarifying his body to the very ribs I We believe the subject of this foul out- rage still drags out a miserable existence — an ob- ject of horror and of pity. Last week a club of Lynchers, amounting to four or five individuals, as we have been credibly informed, broke into the house of Mr. Scott of Wilkinson co., a respecta- ble member of the bar, forced him out, and hung him dead on the next tree. We have heard of nu- merous minor outrages committed against the peace of society, and the welfare and happiness of the country; but we mention these as the most enor- mous that we have heard for some months. " It now becomes our painful duty, to notice a most disgraceful outrage committed by the Lynch- ers of Vicksburg, on last Sunday. The victim was a Mr. Grace, formerly of the neighborhood of War- renton, Va., but for two years a resident of this ci- ty. He was detected in giving free passes to slaves and brought to trial before Squire Maxcy. Unfor- tunately for the wretch, either through the want of law or evidence, he could not be punished, and he was set at liberty by the magistrate. The city mar- shal seeing that a few in the crowd were disposed to lay violent hands on the prisoner in the event of his escaping punishincnt by law, resolved to acconi. pany him to his house. The Lynch mob still fol. lowed, and the marshal findiiiir the prisoner could only be protected by hurrying hiin to jail, endeavor, ed to effect that object. The Lynchers, however, pursued the officer of the law, dragged him from his horse, bruised him, and conveyed the prisoner to the most convenient point of the city for carry ing their blood.thirsty designs into execution. We blush while we record the atrocious deed ; in this city, containing nearly 5,000 souls, in the broad light of day, this aged wretch was stripped and flogged, we believe within hearing of the lamenta- tions and the shrieks of his afflicted wife and chil- dren." In an affray at Montgomery, Mississippi, July 1, 1838, Mr. A. L. Herbert was killed by Dr. J . Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 197 B. Harrington. See Grand Gulf Advertiser, Au- gust 1, 1838. The " Maryland Republican" of January 30, 1838, has the following : " A street rencounter lately took place in Jack- son, Miss., between Mr. Robert McDonald and Mr. W. H. Lockhart, in which McDonald was shot with a pistol and immediately expired. Lockhart was cominilted to prison." The '• Nashville Banner," June 22, 1838, has the following : " On the 8th inst. Col. James M. Ilulet was shot with a rifle without any apparent provocation in Gallatin, Miss., by one Richard M. Jones." From the " Huntsville Democrat," Dec. 8, 1838. " The Aberdeen (Miss.) Advocate, of Saturday last, states that on the morning of the day previous, (the 9th) a dispute arose between Mr. Robert Smith and Mr. Alexander Eanes, both of Aber- deen, which resulted in the death of Mr. Smith, who kept a boarding-house, and was an amiable man and a good citizen. In the course of the con- tradictory words of the disputants, the lie was given by Eanes, upon which Smith gathered up a piece of iron and threw it at Eanes, but which missed him and lodged in the walls of the house. At this, Eanes drew a large dirk knife, and stabbed Smith in the abdomen, the knife penetrating the vitals, and thus causing immediate death. Smith breathed only a few seconds after the fatal thrust. " Eanes immediately mounted his horse and rode off, but was pursued by Mr. Hanes, who arrested and took him back, when he was put under guard to await a trial before the proper authorities." From the •♦ Vicksburg Register," Nov. 17, 1838. *' On the 2d inst. an affray occurred between one Stephen Scarbrough and A. W. Higbee of Grand Gulf, in which Scarbrough was stabbed with a knife, which occasioned his death in a few hours. Higbee has been arrested and committed for trial." From the " Huntsville (Ala.) Democrat," Nov. 10, 1838. " Life in the Southwest. — A friend in Louisiana writes, under date of the 31st ult., that a fight took place a few days ago in Madison parish, 60 miles below Lake Providence, between a Mr. Nevilsand a Mr. Harper, which terminated fatally. The po- lice jury had ordered a road on the right bank of the Mississippi, and the neighboring planters were out with their forces to open it. For some offence, Nevils, the superintendent of the operations, flogged two of Harper's negroes. The next day the par- ties met on horseback, when Harper dismounted, and proceeded to cowskin Nevils for the chastise- ment inflicted on the negroes. Nevils immediate- ly drew a pistol and shot his assailant dead on the spot. Both were gentlemen of the highest respec- tability. " An affray also came off recently, as the same correspondent writes us, in Raymond, Hinds co.. Miss., which for a serious one, was rather amusing. The sheriff had a process to serve on a man of the name of Bright, and, in consequence of some dif- ficulty and intemperate language, thought proper to commence the service by the application of his cowskin to the defendant. Bright thereupon floored his adversary, and, wresting his cowhide from him, applied it to its owner to the extent of at least five hundred lashes, meanwhile threatening to shoot the first bystander who attempted to inter- fere. The sheriff was carried home in a state of insensibility, and his life has been despaired of. The mayor of the place, however, issued his war- rant, and started three of the sheriff's deputies in pursuit of the dehnquent, but the latter, after keep- ing them at bay till they found it impossible to arrest him, surrendered himself to the magistrate, by whom he was bound over to the next Circuit Court. From the mayor's office, his honor and the parties litigant proceeded to the tavern to take a drink by way of ending hostilities. But the civil functionary refused to sign articles of peace by touciiing glasses with Bright, whereupon the latter made a furious assault upon him, and then turned and flogged ' mine host' within an inch of his life because he interfered. Satisfied with his day's work, Brigiu retired. Can we show any such specimens of chivalry and refinement in Kentucky !" From the " Grand Gulf (Miss.) Advertiser," June 27, 1837. " Death by Violence. — The moral atmosphere in our state appears to be in a deleterious and sanguinary condition. Almost every exchange paper which reaches us contains some inhuman and revolting case of murder or death by vio- lence. Not less than fifteen deaths by violence have occurred, to our certain knowledge, within the past three months. Such a state of things, in a country professing to be moral and christian, is a disgrace to human nature, and is well calculated to induce those abroad unacquainted with our general habits and feelings, to regard the morals of our people in no very enviable light ; and does more to injure and weaken our pohtical institu- tions than years of pecuniary distress. The fre- quency of such events is a burning disgrace to the morality, civilization, and refinement of feeling to which we lay claim, and so often boast, in com- parison with the older states. And unless we sot about and put an immediate and effectual ter- mination to such revolting scenes, we shall be compelled to part with what all genuine southern- ers have ever regarded as their richest inheritance, the proud appellation of the ' brave, high-minded and chivalrous sons of the south.'' " This done, we should soon discover a change for the better — peace and good order would prevail, and the ends of justice be effectually and speedily attained, and then the people of this wealthy state would be in a condition to bid defiance to the dis- graceful reproaches which are now daily heaped upon them by the religious and moral of other states." " The present white population of Mississippi is but little more than half as great as that of Ver- mont, and yet more horrible crimes are perpetra- ted by them every month, than have ever been perpetrated in Vermont since it has been a state, now about half a century. Whoever doubts it, let liim get data and make his estimate, and he will find that this is no random guess. 198 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. LOUISIANA. Louisiana became one of the United States in 1811. Its present wliite population is about one hundred and fifteen thousand. The extracts which follow furnish another illus- tration of the horrors produced by passions blown up to fury in the furnace of arbitrary power. We have just been looking over a broken file of Louis- iana papers, including the last six months of 1837, and the whole of 1838, and find ourselves obliged to abandon our design of publishing even an ab- stract of the scores and hundreds of afl'rays, mur- ders, assassinations, duels, lynchings, assaults, &c. which took place in that state during that period. Those which have taken place in New Orleans alone, during the last eighteen months, would, in detail, fill a volume. Instead of inserting the de- tails of the principal atrocities in Louisiana, as in the states already noticed, we will furnish the read- er with the testimony of various editors of newspa- pers, and others, residents of the state, which will perhaps as truly set forth the actual state of society there, as could be done by a publication of the out- rages themselves. From the "New Orleans Bee," of May 23, 1838. " Contempt of human life. — In view of the crimes which are daily committed, we are led to inquire whether it is owing to the inefficiency of our laws, or to the manner in which those laws arc administered, that this frightful deluge of human blood flows through our streets and our places of public resort. " Whither will such contempt for the life of man lead us ? The unhealthiness of the climate mows down annually a part of our population ; the mur- derous sieel despatches its proportion; and if crime increases as it has, the latter will soon, become the most powerful agent in destroying life. "We cannot but doubt the perfection of our criminal code, when we see that almost every cri- minal eludes the law, either by boldly avowing the crime, or by the tardiness with which legal prose- cutions are carried on, or, lastly, by the convenient application of bail in criminal cases." The "New Orleans Picayune" of July 30, 1837, says : " It is with the most painful feehngs that we daily hear of some fatal duel. Yesterday we were told of the unhappy end of one of our most influential and highly respectable merchants, who fell yesterday morning at sunrise in a duel. As usual, the circumstances which led to the meeting were trivial." The New Orleans correspondent of the New York Express, in his letter dated New Orleans, July 30, 1837, says : " Thirtken duels have been fought in and near the city during the week ; fivs more were to take place this morning." The "New Orleans Merchant" of March 20, 1838, says : " Murder has been riie within the two or three weeks last past; and what is worse, the authorities of those places where they occur are perfectly re- gardlcss of the fact." The " New Orleans Bee" of September 8, 1838, says : " Not two months since, the miserable Barba became a victim to one of the most cold-blooded schemes of assassination that ever disgraced a civilized community. Last Sunday evening an individual, Gonzales by name, was seen in perfect health, in conversation with his friends. On Mon- day morning his dead body was withdrawn from the Mississippi, near the ferry of the first munici- pality, in a stale of terrible mutilation. To cap the climax of horror, on P'riday morning, about half past six o'clock, the coroner was called to hold an inquest over the body of an individual, between Magazine and Tchoupitoulas streets. The head was entirely severed from the body ; the lower ex- tremities had likewise suffered amputation ; the right foot was completely dismembered from the leg, and the left knee nearly severed from the thigh. Several stabs, wounds and bruises, were discovered on various parts of the body, which of themselves were sufficient to produce death." The " Georgetown (South Carolina) Union" of May 20, 1837, has the following extract from a New Orleans paper. " A short time since, two men shot one another down in one of our bar rooms, one of whom died instantly. A day or two after, one or two infants were found murdered, there was every reason to believe, by their own mothers. Last week we had to chronicle a brutal and bloody murder, committed in the heart of our city : the very next day a mur- der-trial was commenced in our criminal court : the day ensuing this, we published the particulara of Hart's murder. The day after that, Tihbetta was hung for attempting to commit a murder ; the next day again we had to publish a murder com- rnitted by two Spaniards at the Lake — this was on Friday last. On Sunday we published the account of another murder committed by the Italian, Gre- gorio. On Monday, another murder was commit- ted, and the murderer lodged in jail. On Tuesday morning another man was stabbed and robbed, and is not likely to recover, but the assassin es- caped. The same day Reynolds, who killed Bar- re, shot himself in prison. On W^edncsday, another person, Mr. Nicolet, blew out his brains. Ycster- day, the unfortunate George Clement destroyed himself in his cell; and in addition to this dreadful catalogue we have to add that of the death of two brothers, who destroyed themselves through grief at the death of their mother; and truly may we say that ♦ we know not what to-morrow will bring forth.' " Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 199 The " Louisiana Advertiser," as quoted by the Silt River (Mo.) Journal of May 25, 1837, says : " Within the last ten or twelve days, three sui- cides, four murders, and two executions, have oc- curred in the city ! " The " New Orleans Bee" of October 25, 1837, says: " We remark with regret the frightful list of ho- micides that are daily committed in New Orleans." The " Planter's Banner" of September 30, 1838, published at Franklin, Louisiana, after giving an account of an affray between a number of planters, in which three were killed and a fourth mortally wounded, says that " Davis (one of the murderers) was arrested by the by-standers, but a justice of the peace came up and told them, he did not think it right to keep a man ' tied in that manner,' and ' thought it best to turn him loose.' It was ac cordingly so done." This occurred ia'the parish, of Harrisonburg. Tl»e Banner closes the account by saying : " Our informant states tliat Jivs lohite men and one negro have been murdered in the parish of Madison, during the months of July and August." This justice of the peace, who bade the by- standers unloose the murderer, mentioned above, ^has plenty of birds of his own feather among the law officers of Louisiana. Two of the leading officers in the New Orleans police took two wit- nesses, while undergoing legal examination at Lexington, near New Orleans, " carried them to a bye-place, and lynched them, during which inqui- sitorial operations, they divulged every thing to the officers, Messrs. Foyle and Grossman." The pre- ceding fact is published in the Maryland Repubh- can of August 22, 1837. Judge Lansuge of New Orleans, in his address at the opening of the criminal court, Nov. 4, 1837, published in the "Bee" of Nov. 8, in remarking upon the prevalence of out-breaking crimes, says : " Is it possible in a civihzed country such crying abuses are constantly encounleredl How many individuals have given themselves up to such cul- pable habits ! Yet we find magistrates and juries hesitating to expose crimes of the" blackest dye to eternal contempt and infamy, to the vengeance of the law. " As a Louisianian parent, I reflect with terror that our beloved children, reared to become one day honorable and useful citizens, may be the vic- tims of these votaries of vice and licentiousness. Without some powerful and certain remedy, our streets loill become butcheries overflowing with the blood of our citizens.'''' The Editor of the " New Orleans Bee," in his pa- per of Oct. 21, 1837, has a long editorial article, in which he argues for the virtual legahzing of Lynch Law, as follows : "We think then that in the circumstances in which we are placed, the Legislature ought to sanc- tion such measures as the situation of the country render necessary, by givmg to justice a convenient latitude There are occasions when the delays inseparable from the administration of justice would be inimical to the public safety, and where the most fatal consequences would be the result. " It appears to us, that there is an urgent neces- sity to provide against the inconveniences which result from popular judgment, and to check the disposition for the speedy execution of justice, re- suiting from the unconstitutional principle of a pretended Lynch law, by authorizing the parish court to take cognizance without delay, against every free man who shall be convicted of a crime, from the accusations arising from the mere provo- cations to the insurrection of the working classes. " .A.11 judicial sentences ought to be based upon law, and the terrible privilege which the populace now have of punishing with death certain crimes, ought to be consecrated by law, powerful interests would not suffice in our view to excuse the inter- ruption of social order, if the public safety was not with us tlie supreme law. " This is the reason that whilst we deplore the imperious necessity which exists, we entreat the legislative power to give the sanction of principle to what already exists in fact." The Editor of the " New Orleans Bee," in his pa- per, Oct. 25, 1837, says : " We remark with regret the frightful Ust of homicides, whether justifiable or not, that are daily committed in New Orleans. It is not through any inherent vice of legal provision that such outrages are perpetrated with impunity : it is rather in the neglect of the application of the law which exists on this subject. " We will confine our observation to the danger- ous facilities afforded by this code for the escape of the homicide. We are well aware that the laws in question are intended for the distribution of equal justice, yet we have too often witnessed the ac- quittal of delinquents whom we can denominate by no other title than that of homicides, while the simple affirmation of others has been admitted (in default of testimony) who are themselves the authors of the deed, for which they stand in judg. ment. The indiscriminate system of accepting bail is a blot on our criminal legislation, and is one great reason why so many violators of the law avoid its penalties. To this doubtless must be as- cribed the non-interference of the Attorney General. The law of habeas corpus being subjected to the interpretation of every magistrate, whether versed or not in criminal cases, a degree of arbitrary and incorrect explanation necessarily results. How frequently docs it happen that the Mayor or Re- corder decides upon the gravest case without put- ting himself to the smallest trouble to inform the Attorney General, who sometimes only hears of the affair when investigation is no longer possible, or when the criminal has wisely commuted his punishment into temporary or perpetual exile. That morahty suffers by such practices, is be- yond a doubt ; yet moderation and mercy are so beautiful in theinselves, that we would scarcely protest against indulgence, were it not well known that the acceptance of bail is the safeguard of every dehnquent who, through wealth or connec- tions, possesses influence enough to obtain it. Here arbitrary construction glides amidst the con- fusion of testimony ; there it presumes upon the want of evidence, and from one cause oranotheritis extremely rare, tliat a refusal to bail has dehverod 200 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. the accused into the hands of justice. In crimi- nal cases, the Court and Jury are the proper tribu- nals to decide upon the reality of the crime, and the palliating circumstances ; yet it is not unfre- qtient for the public voice to condemn as an odious assassin, tlie very individual who by the acquittal of the judge, walks at large and scofls at justice. " It is time to restrict within its proper limits this pretended right of personal protection ; it is time ro teach our population to abstain from mutual murder upon slight provocation. — Duelline:, Hea. ven knows, is dreadful enough, and quite a suffi- cient means of gratifying private aversion, and avenging insult. Frequent and serious brawls in our cafes, streets and houses, every where attest the insufficiency or misapplication of our legal code, or the want of energy in its organs. To say that unbounded license is the result of Hberty is folly. Liberty is the consequence of well regulated laws — without these. Freedom can exist only in name, and the law which favors the escape of the opu- lent and aristocratic from the penakies of retribu- tion, but consigns the poor and friendless to the chain-gang or the gallows, is in fact the very es- sence of slavery I I The editor of the same paper says (Nov. 4, 1837.) *' Perhaps by an equitable, but strict application of that law, (the law which forbids the wearing of deadly weapons concealed,) the effusion of human blood might be stopt which, now defiles our streets and our coffee-houses as if they were shambles ! Reckless disregard of the life of man is rapidly gaining ground among us, and the habit of seeing a man whom it is taken for granted was armed, murdered merely for a. gesture, may influence the opinion of a jury composed of citizens, whom, LONG IMPUNITY TO HOMICIDES OF EVERY KIND has persuaded, that the right of self-defence extends even to the taking of hfe for gestures, more or less threatening. So many daily instances of out- breaking passion which have thrown whole fami- lies into the deepest affliction, teach us a terrible lesson." From the *' Columbus (Ga.) Sentinel," July 6, 1837. " Wholesale Murders. — No less than three murders were committed in New Orleans on Monday evening last. The first was that of a man in Poydras, near the corner of Tehapitoulas. The murdered individual had been suspected of a liason with another man's wife in the neighbour hood, was caught in the act, followed to the above corner and shot. " The second was that of a man in Perdido street. Circumstances not known. "The third was that of a watchman, on the cor- ner of Custom House and Burgundy street, who was found dead yesterday morning, shot through the heart. The deed was evidently committed on the opposite side from where he was found, as the unfortunate man was tracked by his blood across the street. In addition to being shot through the heart, two wounds in his breast, supposed to have been done with a Bowie knife, were discov. ercd. No arrests have been made to our know- ledge." The editor of the "Charleston, (S. C.) Mercury" of April, 1S37, makes the following remarks. " The energy of a Tacon is much needed to vivify the police of New Orleans. In a single pa» per we find an account of the execution of one man for robbery and intent to kill, of the arrest of another for stabbing a man to death with a carving knife ; and of a third found murdered on the Levee on the previous Sunday morning. In the last case, although the murderer was known, no steps had been taken for his arrest ; and to crown the whole, it is actually stated in so many words, that the City guards are not permitted, according to their instructions, to patrol the Levee after night, for fear of attacks from persons employed in steamboats I" The present white population of Louisiana is but Htde more than that of Rhode Island, yet more appalling crime is committed in Louisiana every day, than in Rhode Island during a year, notwith- standing the tone of pubhc morals probably is lower in the latter than in any other New England state. TENNESSEE. Tennessee became one of the United States in 1796. Its present white population is about seven hundred thousand. The details which follow, go to confirm the old truth, that the exercise of arbitrary power tends to make men monsters. The following, from the '•Memphis (Tennessee) Enquirer," was published m the Virginia Advocate, Jan. 26, 1838. " Below will be found a detailed account of one of the most unnatural and aggravated murders ever recorded. Col. Ward, the deceased, was a man of high standing in the state, and very much es- teemed by his neighbors, and by all who knew him. The brothers concerned in this ' murder, most foul and unnatural,' were Lafayette, Chamberlayne, Ca>sar, and Achilles Jones, (the nephews of Col. Ward.) " The four brothers, all armed, went to the resi- donee of Mr. A. G. Ward, in Shelby co., on the evening of 22d instant. They were conducted into the room in which Col. Ward was sitting, together with some two or three ladies, his intended wife amongst the number. Upon their entering the room. Col. Ward rose, and extended his hand to Lafayette. He refused, saying he would shake hands with no such d — ■ — d rascal. The rest an- swered in the same tone. Col. Ward remarked that they were not in a proper place for a difficulty, if they sought one. Col. Ward went from the room to the passage, and was followed by the broth- ers. He said he was unarmed, but if they would lay down their arms, he could whip the whole of them ; or if they would place him on an ciiual foot- ing, he could whip the whole of them one by one Caisar told Chamberlayne to give the Col. one of his Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 201 pistols, which he did, and both went out into the yard, the other brothers following. While stand- ing a few paces from each other, Lafayette came up, and remarked to the Col., ' If you spill my brother's blood, I will spill yours,' about which time Chamberlayne's pistol fired, and immediately La- fiiyectc bursted a cap at him. The Colonel turned to Lafayette, and said, ' Lafayette, you intend to kill,' and discharged his pistol at him. The ball struck the pistol of Lafayette, and glanced into his arm. Bv thi.s lime Albert Ward, being close by, and iiearing the fuss, came up to the assistance of the Colonel, when a scuffle amongst nil hands en- sued. The Colonel stumbled and fell down — he received several wounds from a large bowie knife; and, after being stabbed, Chamberlayne jumped upon him, and stamped him several times. After the scuffle, Caesar Jones was seen to put up a large bowie knife. Colonel Ward said he was a dead man. By the assistance of Albert Ward, he reached the house, distance about 15 or 20 yards, and in a few minutes expired. On examination by the Cor- oner, it appeared that he had received several wounds from pistols and knives. Albert Ward was also badly bruised, not dangerously." The " New Orleans Bee," Sept. 22, 1838, pub- lished the following from the " Nashville (Tennes- see) Whig." "The Nashville Whig, of the 11th ult., says : Pleasant Watson, of De Kalb county, and a Mr. Carmichael, of Alabama, were the principals in an affray at Livingston, Overton county, last week, which terminated in the death of the former. Wat- son made the assault with a dirk, and Carmichael defended himself with a pistol, shooting his antag- onist through the body, a few inches below the heart. Watson was hving at the last account. The dispute grew out of a horse race." The New Orleans Courier, April 7, 1837, has the following extract from the " McMinersville (Tennessee) Gazette." "On Saturday, the 8th instant, Colonel David L. Mitchell, the worthy sheriff of White county, was most barbarously murdered by a man named Jo- seph Little. Colonel Mitchell had a civil process against Little. He went to Little's house for the purpose of arresting him. He found Little armed with a rifle, pistols, &c. He commenced a con- versation with Little upon the impropriety of his resisting, and stated his determination to take him, at the same time slowly advancing upon Little, who discharged his rifle at him without effect. Mitchell then attempted to jump in, to take hold of him, when Little struck him over the head with the bar- rel of his rifle, and literally mashed his skull to pieces ; and, as he lay prostrate on the earth. Lit. lie deliberately pulled a large pistol from his belt, and placing the muzzle close to Mitchell's head, he shot the ball through it. Little has made his es- cape. There were three men near by when the murder loas committed, who made no attempt to arrest the murderer." The following affray at Athens, Tennessee, is from the Mississippian, August 10, 1838. " An unpleasant occurrence transpired at Athens on Monday. Captain James Byrnes was stabbed four times, twice in the arm, and twice in the side, by A. R. Livingston. The wounds are said to be very severe, and fears are entertained of their prov- ing mortal. The affair underwent an examination belbre Sylvester Nichols, Esq., by whom Living- ston was let to bail." The " West Tennessean," Aug. 4, 1837, says — " A duel was fought at Calhoun, Tenn., between G. W. Carter and J. C. Sherley. They used yau- gers at the distance of 20 yards. The former was slightly wounded, and the latter quite danger- ously." June 23d, 1838, Benjamin Shipley, of Hamilton CO., Tennessee, shot Archibald McCallie. (Nash- tille Banner, July 16, 1838.) June 23d, 1838, Levi Stunston, of Weakly co., Tennessee, killed William Price, of said county, in an affray. (Nashville Banner, July 6, 1838.) October 8, 1838, in an affray at Wolf's Ferry, Tennessee, Martin Farley, Senior, was killed by John and Solomon Step. {Georgia Telegraph, Nov. 6, 1838.) Feb. 14, 1838, John Manie was killed by Wil- liam Doss at Decatur, Tennessee. {Memphis Ga. zette. May 15, 1838.) " From the Nashville Whig." " Fatal Affray in Columbia, Tenn. — A fatal street encounter occurred at that place, on the 3d inst., between Richard H. Hays, attorney at law, and Wm. Polk, brother to the Hon. Jas. K. Polk. The parties met, armed with pistols, and exchanged shots simultaneously. A buck-shot pierced the brain of Hays, and he died early the next morn- ing. The quarrel grew^ out of a sportive remark of Hays', at dinner, at the Columbia Inn, for which he offered an apology, not accepted, it seems, as Polk went to Hays' ofiice, the same evening, and chastised him with a whip. This occurred on Fri- day, the fatal result took place on Monday." In a fight near Memphis, Tennessee, May 15, 1837, Mr. Jackson, of that place, shot through the heart Mr. W. F. Gholson, son of the late Mr. Gholson, of Virginia. {Raleigh Register, June 13, 1837.) The following horrible outrage, committed in West Tennessee, not far from Randolph, was pub- lished by the Georgetown (S. C.) Union, May 26, 1837, from the Louisville Journal. " A feeble bodied man settled a few years ago on the Mississippi, a short distance below Ran. dolph, on the Tennessee side. He succeeded in amassing property to the value of about $14,000, and, like most of the settlers, made a business of selling wood to the boats. This he sold at $2 50 a cord, while his neighbors asked $3. One of them came to remonstrate against his underselling, and had a fight with his brother-in-law Clark, in which he was beaten. He then went and obtained legal process against Clark, and returned with a deputy sheriff', attended by a posse of desperate villains. When they arrived at Clark's house, he was seated among his children — they put two or three balls through his body. Clark ran, was overtaken and knocked down ; in the midst of his cries for mer. cy, one of the villains fired a pistol in his mouth 202 Objections Considered — Public Opinion. Killing him instantly. They then required the set- tler to sell his property to them, and leave the country. He, fearing that they would otherwise take his life, sold them his valuable property for $300, and departed with his family. The sheriff was one of the purchasers." The Baltimore American, Feb. 8, 183S, publish- es the following from the Nashville (Tennessee) Banner : "A most atrocious nmrder was commitled a few days ago at Lagrange, in this state, on the body of Mr. .Tohn T. Foster, a respectable merchant of that town. The perpetrators of this bloody act are E. Moody, Thomas Moody, J. E. Douglass, W. R. Harris, and W. C. Harris. The circumstances at- tending this horrible aflair, are the following: — On tiie night previous to the murder, a gang of villains, under jiretence of wishing to purchase goods, en- tered Mr. Foster's store, took him by force, and rode him through the streets on a rail. The next morning, Mr. F. met one of the party, and gave him a caning. For this just retaliation for the out- rage which had been committed on his person, he v.-as pursued by the persons above named, while taking a walk with a friend, and murdered in the open face of day." The following presentment of a Tennessee Grand Jury, sufficiently explains and comments on itself: The Grand Jurors empanelled to inquire for the county of Shelby, would separate without having discharged their duties, if they were to omit to no- tice public evils which they have found their pow- ers inadequate to put in train for punishment. The evils referred to exist more particularly in the town of Memphis. The audacity and frequency with which outrages are committed, forbid us, in justice to our con- sciences, to omit to use the powers we possess, to bring them to the severe action of the law ; ana when we find our powers inadequate, to draw upon them public attention, and the rebuke of the good. An infamous female publicly and grossly assault3 a lady ; therefore a public meeting is called, the mayor of the town is placed in the chair, resolutions are adopted, providing for the summary and law. less punishment of the wretched woman. In the progress of the affair, hundreds of citizens aspem- ble at her house, and raze it to the ground. The unfortunate creature, toge'.her with two or three men of like character, are committed, in an open canoe or boat, without oar or paddle, to the middle of the Mississippi river. Such is a concise outline of the leading incidents of a recent transaction in Memphis. It might be filled up by the detail of individual exploits, which would give vivacity to the description ; but we for bear to mention them. We leave it to others to admire the manliness of the transaction, and the courage displayed by a mob of hundreds, in the various outrages upon the persons and property of three or four individuals who fell under its ven- geance. The present white population of Tennessee is about the same with that of Massachusetts, and yet more outbreaking crimes are committed in Ten- nessee in a single month, than in Massachusetts during a whole year; and this, too, notwithstand- ing the largest town in Tennessee has but six thou- sand inhabitants ; \vhereas, in Massachusetts, be- sides one of eighty thousand, and two others of nearly twenty thousand each, there are at least a dozen larger than the chief town in Tennessee, which gives to the latter state an important advan- tage on the score of morality, the country being 8«» much more favorable to it than large towns. KENTUCKY. Kentucky has been one of the United States since 1792. Its present white population is but six hundred thousand. The details which follow show still further that those who unite to plunder of their rights one class of human beings, regard as sacred the rights of no class. The following affair at Maysville, Kentucky, is extracted from the Maryland Republican, January 30, 1838. " A fight came off at Maysville, Ky. on the 29th idtimo, in which a Mr. Coulster was stabbed in the eide aud is dead ; a Mr. Gibson was well hacked with a knife ; a Mr. Farris was dangerously wounded in the head, and another of the same name in the hip; a Mr. Shoemaker was severely beaten, and several others seriously hurt in various ways." The following is extracted from the N. C. Stan- dard. " A most bloody and shocking transaction took place in the little town of Clinton, Hickman co. Ken. The circumstances are briefly as follows : A special canvass for a representative from the county of Hickman, had for some time been in progress. A gentleman by the name of Binford was a candidate. The Slate Senator from the district, Judge James, took some exceptions to the reputation of Binford, and intimated that if B. should be elected, he (James) would resign rather than serve with such a colleague. Hearing this, Binford went to the house of James to demand an explanation. Mrs. James remarked, in a jest as Binford thought, that if she was in the place of her husband she would resign her seat in the Senate, and not serve with such a character. B. told her that she was a woman, and could say what she pleased. She replied that she was not in earnest. James then looked B. in the face and said that, if his wife said so, it was the fact — ' he was an in- famous scoundrel and d — d rascal.' He asked B. if he was armed, and on being answered in the affirmative, he stepped into an adjoining room to arm himself He was prevented by the family from returning, and Binford walked out. J. then told him from his piazza, that he would meet him next day in Clinton. True to their appointment, the enraged parties met on the streets the following day. James shot Objections Considered — Public Opinion. 203 first, his ball passing through his antagonist's hver, ■R'hose pistol fired immediately afterwards, and missing J., the ball pierced the head of a stranger by the name of Collins, who instantly fell and expired. After being shot, Binford sprang upon J. with the fury of a wounded tiger, and would have taken his life but for a second shot received through the back from Bartin James, the brother of Thomas. Even after he received the last fatal wound he struggled with his antagonist until death relaxed his grasp, and he fell with the horrid ex- clamation, ' I am a dead man ." " Judge James gave himself up to the authorities ; and when the informant of the editor left GHnton, Bhiford, and the unfortunate stranger lay shrouded corpses to{''cthr)d of taking meals IB, 19 " Middle passage" 8, 113 M isr;arriagc of women at the whipping post 20 Mississippi 39, 194 Missouri 191 Mistresses flog slaves, 55 Index. 215 Mobile 68 " Moderate correction" 21, 148 Moors, repulsion of 8 Morgan, William 113 Mormons 191 Mothers and babes separated 104, 165 Mothers of slaves 96 Mulatto children in all families 51 Multiplying of slaves 139 Murderers of slaves tried and acquitted 26, 90 Murder of slaves by law 90 " bad feeling 29 " " '' piece-meal 34 " «' every seven years 39 frequent 46, 97, 176 '* " with impunity, 21, 46, 47, 50, 54, 91, 92, 96,97, 100, 102, 108, 176 Murders in Alabama, 192 " " Arkansas, 188 N. Naked children 19, 41, 95 " '' Dave" 16 " females whipped 14, 103 " " inspected 154 " Men and women at work in a field lOl Nakedness of slaves 19, 40, 41, 95, 101 Nanlz, edict of 8 • National slave-market' 76 Natchez 107, 190 Nat Turner 96 ' Negro Head Point, 161 ' Negroes for sale, 167, 175 ' Negroes taken 159 Nero 121 ' Never lose a day's work' 174 New England, witches of 113 New Orleans 91 " '' Hospital 161 New York, thirteen persons burnt at 1 13 Nice, council of 120 ' Nigger put in the bill' 172 Night-confinement 22 Night at a slaveholder's house 97 Night in slave huts 19, 25 Nine slaves hanged 158 No marriage among slaves 47 North Carolina 11, 23 '• " Governor of 24 " " Legislature of 115, 164 " " Kidnappers 164 Northern visifors to the slave states, 128 Nothing can disgrace slave-drivers 53 Novel torture 104 Nudity of slaves 40, 41, 47, 95, Nursing of slave-children 12 O. Objections considered llO Ocra, a slave-driver, 106 Oiling of a slave 27 Old age uncommon among slaves 38 •' *' improtected 167 Old dying slaves 12 " Old settlement" 99 ' " slaves 133 Oppressor aversion of to his slave 116 Outlawry of slaves 150 Outrageous Felonies on account of slavery 11? " '' perpetrated witli impunity H3 Overseers, character of 72, 95, 96, 109 " generally armed 11, 12, 72 " no appeal from 95 Overseers of slaves — Alabama, 95 — Alexander killed, 102 — Belle- mont, 53 — Bellows, 72 — Blocken's, 47 — Bradley, 70 — Cormick's, 86— Cruel to a proverb, 105 — Farr, James, 99 — Galloway, 11 — Gibbs, 70 Goochland, 20 — VI ethodist preacher, 11 — Mil- ligan's Bend, 75 — Nowland's, 92 — Tune, 45- Turner's cousin, 46 — Walker, 47 — Overworking of slaves, 35, 37 — Ownership of human beings destroys their comfort, 109. P. " Paddle" torture 71 Paddle whipping 20, 46, 103 Pain, the means of slave drivers 109 " Pancake sticks" 53 Parents and children separated 56 Parlor-slavcs 130 Parricide threatened 97 Patrol 14 Pay for brgotting mulatto slaves . 16 Periodical pressure 134 PtTseculion of Huguenots Persecution for religion 113, 1 8 Personal Narratives,, 11, 17, 22, 25, 26, 44, 45, 48, 51, Philanthropist 66 Philip II. and the Moora 8 Physicians not employed for slaves 176 Physicians of slaves 44, 47 Physician's statement 104 Pig-sties more comfortable than slave-huts, 101 Plantations 94 Pleas for cruelty to slaves 104 Ploughs and whips equally common 104 Pliny 119 Poles, Russian clemency to 8 Polyearp 119 " Poor African slave" 14 Portuguese slaves 8 Pothinus 119 Prayer of slaves 17 Praying and slave-whipping in the same room 53 Praying slaves whipped 88 Preaehar claims a dead slave 178 Preacher hung, 96 Preachers, cringing of 16 Preacher's " hands tied" 16 Preachers silenced 51 Pregnant slaves 12, 90 whipped 20, 90, 106 Prpsbyterian Elders at Lynchburg 181 Presbyterian minister killed his slave 96 Presbyterian slave-trader 97 Presbyterian woman desirious to cut A. T 's throat 47 Presentment of the Grand Jury at Cheraw 155 Pretexts for slavery absurd 7 Prisons in the District of Columbia 163 Prison slave 23 Privations of the slaves — Clo1hing,40— Dwellings, 43— Food, 27— Kinds of food, 28 — Labor, 25 — Number of meals, 31 — Quality of fooc, 30 — Quantity of food, 29 — Time of meais, 31. 216 Index. Promiscuous concubinage 85 '' Property" 110 " ' loss of 16!) PVotcction of slaves 143 Protestants in France 8 Provisions, allowance of 13 Public opinion destroys fundamental rights, 150 " " diabolical 152 " " protects the slave 143, 144 Punishment of slaves 19,20 Punishments 62, 103 Purchasing a wife 179 Puryer, '' the devil" 47 Putrid backs of slaves 54 Q. Quality of food 30 Quantity of food 13, 29 R. Race of slaves murdered every seven years 39 Randolph John will of 42, 58 " " description of slavedrivcrs 173 " " " Doe faces" Rations Rearing of slaves Relaxation, no time for Religious persecutions Respect for woman lost Rest, liours of Restraints, legal Rotort of a boy Rhode Island, kidnappers and pirates of Rice plantations Richmond Whig Rio Janeiro slavery at Riot at Natchez Riots in the United States Robespierre Romans Roman slavery Runaways Runaway Slaves — Advertisements for Baptist man and woman Buried alive Chilton's Converted " Dead or alive" Head on a pole Hung Hunting of Intelligent man Jim Dragon Luke Man buried " dragged by a horse " maimed " murdered " severe punishments of " shot 114 33 182 lOG 113 153 36 116 57 113 106 110 8 196 113 121 118-126 21-133-136 62-63 88 15 27 23 21 23 46 21-97 22 47 14 15 85 85 76-100 103 15, 21, 46, 91 96, 100, 102, 107 " " by Baptist preacher 181 " taken from jail 16 " tied and driven 92 '' to his wife 23 " whipped to death 87 Many, annually shot 108 Stall ard's man 89 White Peter , 91 Young wom?Ji 24, 88 S. Sabbath, a nominal holiday, 106 Safeguards of the law taken from slaves, 116 Sale of a man by a Presbyterian elder. 52 Sale of slaves. 167 Savannah, Ga., 17 Savannah slave-hunter, 21 Save us from our friends, 193 Scarcity, times of 134 Scenes of horror. 20 Search for Bibles and Hymn books, 51 Secretary of the Navy, 76,89 Separation of slaves, 56, 101, 164 Shame unknown among naked slaves, 101 Shoes for slaves. 19 Sick, treatment of 161 " Six pound paddle," 71 " Slack-jaw," 97 Slave-breeders, 143 " breeding. 182 Slave-drivers acknowledge their enormities, 114 " " character of 109 Slaveholders — Adams, 69, 159 Baptist preachers. 97, 177 Barr, 46 Baxter, George A 179 Baxter, John 179 Blocker, Colonel 47 Blount, 65 Britt, Benjamin W. 91 Burbecker, 88 Burvant, Mrs. 173 C. A., Rev. 179 Casey, 69 Chilton, Joseph 27 Clay, 71 C, Mr. 103 Cooper, Charity ITS Curtis, 64 Davis, Samuel 90 Dras, Henry 175 Delaware, 172 Female hypocrite, 22 Gautney, Joseph 99 Gayle, Governor 172 Governor of North Carolina, 24 Green, 157 Hampton, Wade 29 Harney, William S. 89 Harris, Benjamin James 26 Hayne, Governor 166 Hedding, 51 Henrico county, Va., 36 Heyward, Nathaniel 174 Hughes, Philip 0. 100 Hutchinson, 86 Hypocrite woman, 22 Indecency of, 153 Jones, 47 Jones, Henry 89 Lewis, Benjamin, 178 Lewis, Isham, 93 Lewis, Lilburn, 93 Lewis, Rev. Mr. 181 Long, Lucy 173 Long, Reuben 50 L., of Bath, Ky., 90 Index. 217 Maclay, John 71 Martin, Rev. James 181 Aiatthews' Bend, 69 M'Coy, 99 M'Cue, John . 178 Methodist, 42 Methodist Preachers, 180 M'Meilly, 155 Moresville, 90 Morgan, 85 IMosely, William 46 Murderer, 21 Mushat, Rev. John 177 Nansemond, Va., 84 Natchez planter, 87 Nelson, Alexander 51, 179 Nichols, of Connecticut, 27 North Carohna, 24, 161 Owens, Judge, 69 Painter, 65 Physician, ' 55 Pinckney, H. L. 172 Presbyterian, 97 Presbyterian minister, Huntsville, 47 " " North Carolina, 96 " preacher, 180 Professing Christian, 23 Puryar, "the Devil," 47 Randolph, John 42 Reiks, Micajah, 152 Rodney, 87 Rufi'ner, ■ 50 Snepherd, S. C. 29 Sherrod, Ben 47 Slaughter, 65 Smith, Judge 45, 176 Sophistry of 9 South Carolina, 23, 25 Sparks, Wilham 91 Stallard, David 89. Starky, 68 Swan, John 11 Teacher at Charleston, 54 Thompson, 47 Thorpe, 71 Trabue, Charles 71 Tripp, James 25 Truly, James 100 'Purner, Fielding S. 87 Turner, uncle of 46 Virginian, 44 Wall, 91 Watkins, Billy 47 Watkins, Robert H. 45, 47, 17G Watson, A. 175 W., Colonel 103 Webb, Carroll 105 Pleasant 187 West's uncle, 68 Widow and daughter, Savannan river, 98 Willis, Robert 180 Wilson, WiUiam 178 Woman, . 23, 24 Woman, professor of religion, 22, 44, 53 Slaveholders justify their cruellies by example, 104 " possess absolute power, 116 " sophistry of 9 Slaveholding amusements, 107, 186 brutaUty, 149, 153 " indecency, 153 " murderers, 189, 190 " religion, 54 Slave-mothers, 90 " plantations second only to hell, 114 Slavery among Christians, 45 Slavery illustrated — Slave-auctions, 167 " blocks with nails, 104 " boys fight to amuse their drivers, 107 " branding, 21, 77, 108 " breeding, 39, 85, 182 " burner, 26 " burning, 72, 155 Slave-cabins, 11, 16, 19, 41, 43, 101, 106 " at night, 19, 22, 25 Slave-children nursed, 12 choking, clothing, " collars, " cookery, Slave-ditty, dogs, driver's death, " licentiousness of driving, 23 13, 19, 40, 47, 95, 98, 105, 106 21, 72, 74, 75 18 13 15,21 23,94 70 85, 92 21, 72, 74 18,27,47,95, 101, 105,106 75 ietters, " food, " gagging, " gangs, 76 " handcuffs, 72 " herding, 19, 47 Slaveholders, civilization and morality of 188 " declarations of 28 '♦ habits of 53 " heart of 145 " hospitality of 125 " interest of 132 " sophistry of 1) " " treat their slaves well," 121 Slaveholding professor, 50 " Slaveholding religion," 54 Slave-hovels, 47, 106 " hunting, 21, 97, 108, 155, 160 " " by Christians, 108 " in Texas, 102 Slave imprisoned, 23 " in chains, 13 " in the stocks, 12 " kicking, 97 " killed, and put in the bill, 172 " killing with impunity, 21, 46, 47, 50, 54, 91, 92, 96, 97, 100, 102 108 " labor, 18 35, 103, 105 " manacles, 21 " martyr, 24 " meals, 18, 19 " mothers, 96 " murderers, tried and acquitted, 26 " patrol, 14 " physicians, 44 " punishments of 19, 20, 62 Slave quarters, 16, 17 Slavery, code of law respecting, 143 among Christians, 45, 176 domestic, J.64 guilt of, ,f]^ of whites, -■ 25 pubhc opinion and effects of, 143, 144 218 Index. Slave Slaves unmixed cruelty, 108 selling, 167 , aversion of to their oppressors, 116 backs of , putrid 13 blind, 133 books of searched for, 51 branded, 77, 108 brutality to, 148 burial of, 48 carded, 46 cat-hauhng of, 21, 88 comfort of disregarded, 55, 56 deaf, 133 dead or aUve, 21, 23 deformed, 133 deprived of every safeguard of the law, 116 described, 110 diseased, 133 dread to be sold for the South, 15 dumb, 133 dying, 45 evidence of against white persons null, 12, 71 exchanged. 168 reported from Virginia, 192 fear their only motive. 108 feasted and flogged, 87 hired. 133 idiots. 133 incorrigible, 133 infant. 133 in the stocks, 108 " U. S., treatment of. 9 lunatics, 133 maimed. 77, 133 merchandise. 110 multiply, 139 murdered by cotton.seed, 29 " overwork. 37 " piece-meal. 34,93 " starvation, 37 " every seven years, 39 " frequently, 46,97 100 " " with impunity, 21, 46, 47, 50, 54, 91,92,96,97, 100, 102 " naked, 19, 40, 41, 47 " not treated as human beings, 46 « old, 133 " oudawed, 156 " overworked, 35 " prayers of, 17 " privations of, ■ 27 " protection of, 143 " sale of, 167 " stock, 110 " surgeons of, 44 *' taking medicine, 14 " tantalized, 56 " starvation of, 13,14,28,29,35,105 " teeth of knocked out, 13, 20, 22, 83 " tied up all night, 20 «' toe cut off, 101 " torments of, 145 •' tiavelling in droves, 69, 70. 72 " treated worse as they are farther South, 15 " treatment of by Christians, 42 " under overseers, 133, 137 " wuiching of, 57 " without redress, 95 " " shelter, 43 " working animals, 110 " worn out, 133 " worse treated than brutes, 111,112 " wounded by gun-shot, 77 Slave testimony excluded, 149 " torturing hypocrite, 22 " trade with Africa, 8 " trading, 49, 97 " " honorable, 174 " traffic, 97, 167 Slave Murderers, 21, 26, 29, 46. 50, 54, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 100, 101, 108, 157, 158, 159, IGl, 173, 177, 179, 181. Slave plantation, 11, 24. 25, 29, 38,41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 53, 68, 70, 7], 72, 75, 76, 84, 85, 80, 92, 98, 99, 102, 105, lOG, 207, 114, 174. Slave usnge contrasted with that of animals, 119 Slave whipping, 20, 25, 26, 27, 51, 59, 98, 106 Slave yokes. Whipped Whipped and burnt Whipped to death Slaves, treatment of Slave trade. Sleeping in clothes. Slitting of ears. Smoothing iron on girl's backs. Sophistry of slaveholders. 74 26, 47, 50, 70, 85, 98, 100 26, 86, 92 26, 50, G4, 67, 70, 72, 87, 90 9 139, 140, 182, 184 19 23 68 9 South Carolina, laws of 40, 116 " " medical college, 169 Southern dogs and horses, 19 Spartan slavery, 8 Speece, Rev. Conrad, opposed to emancipation, 52 Spirit of laws, 151 Springfield, S. C. 25 Starvation of a female slave, 23 " " slaves, 10c Statement of a physician, 104 State, abuse of power in 115 Stealing of freemen, 162 Stevenson, Andrew, letter by 182 St. Helena, S. C. 25 Stillman's, Dr. medical infirmary at Charleston, 171 Stocks for slaves, 11, 108, 175 " Stock without shelter," 71 " Subject of prayer," 54 Suffering of slaves, 57, 102. 105 " " by hunger, 28, 105 " " " drives to despair and suicide, 102 Sugar-planters, 38 Suicide of slaves, 102 Suit for a dead slave, 178 " " " murdered slave, 71, 102 Sunday morning in Kentucky, 168 Surgeon of slaves, 44 Surgery at Charleston, 170 " Susceptibility of pain," 109 Tanner's oil poured on a slave 2? Tantalising of slaves 56 Tappan Arthur 47 Tarring of slaves 27 Taskwork of slaves 12 Teeth knocked out 13, 20, 83 Tundcr regard of slaveholders for slave 7, 8 Tennessee 200 Index. 219 Tkstimont. — Allen, Rev. William T. Avery, George A. Caulkins, Nehemiah Ciianninjr, Dr. Chapin Rev. William A. Chapman, Gordon Cler ryman, Cruelty to slaves Dickey, Rev. William Draylon, Colonel Gilderslecvc, William C. Graham, Rev. John Grimkc, Sarah M. llawlcy. Rev. Francis Ide, Joseph lOl Jeffjrson, Thomas Macy, F. C " Reuben G. '• Richard " T. D. M. Moulton, Rev. Horace Nelson, John M. New Orleans Of slaves excluded Paulding, James K. Poc, William Powe', Eleazar Sapington, Lemuel Scales, Rev. William Secretary of the Navy .Smith, Rev. Phineas Summers, Mr. Virginian Westgate, George W. Weld, AngeUna Grimk€ W^hitc, Hiram Wist, Willam '' 45 44 10 38,44 105 84 107 57 93 llO 50 25 22, 44 94 101 110 106 98 98 105 17, 109 51 35,91 149 76,89 26 99 49 100 76,89 109 110 76 30 52 51 109 102 120 120 51 121 106 134 119 Texas I'heodosius the Great Thessalonica, massacre at Thumb-screws Tiberius Time for relaxation, not allowed Times of scarcity Titus Tobacco worms eaten Toes cut off Tooth knocked out Tortures " eulogized by a professor of religion Trading with negroes Traffic in slaves Trajan Treatment of sick slaves Treatment of slaves in the United States by professing Christians 42, 97, 180 " httle better than that of brutes 106 Trial of women, " white and black," 25 Trials for murdering slaves 46, 91, 94, 108, 173 Turkish slavery Turner, Nat Twelve slaves killed by overwork Twenty-seven hundred thousands of free-bom citizens in the United States Tying up of slaves at night '' Tyrant" " Uncle Jack," Baptist preacher Under garments not allowed to slaves United States, Laws of 77 13, 20, 22 72 104 209 97 118 44 9,48 96 97 7 20 115 179 13 32 University of Virginia 114 Untimely seasons 134 Usage of slaves and brutes contrasted 111, 112 Vapid babblings of slaveholders 9 Vice, hypocrisy of 8 Vicksburg, massacre of 146 Virginia, a slave menagerie 182 " exportation of slaves from 182 " University of 114 Visitors to slave states 128 Vitellius 120 Washing for slaves 95 Washington slavery 67 " the national slave market 76 West Indian slaves 142 Whip, cracking of heard at a distance 107 " Whipped to death" 72, 96, 102, 108 Whipping — Children 20 Every day 106 Females 13, 14, 48, 53, 103, 107 On three plantations heard at one time 108 Pregnant women 20, 90, 1 79 Slaves 13, 20, 22, 25, 26, 50, 51, 88, 98, 102, [107 Slaves after a feast 87 " for praying 88 With paddle 20, 46 Women with pra)'er 54 Whipping-posts 18, 20, 46 Whips equally common on plantations as ploughs 104 " White or black," trial of 25 Whites in slavery 25 White slave 48 Wholesale murders 200 Wife, purchase of a Will of John Randolph Wilmington, N. C. Witches of New-England WITNESSES. Aobot, Jordan Abdic, P. Adams, Mr. African Observer Alexandria Gazette Allan, James M., Allan, Rev. William T. Alston, J. A., Heirs of, Alton Telegraph Alvis, J. Anderson, Benjamin Andrews, Professor Anthony, Julius C. Antram, Joshua Appleton, John James Arkansas Advocate Armstrong, William Artop, James Ashford, J. P. Augusta Chronicle Avery, George A. Aylethorpe, Thomas Bahi, P. Ba'tcr, William Baldwin, J. G. Bah! win, Jonathan F. Ballinger, A. S. 42. 179 42 II 113 73 153 159 155 150 45 45,61,180 85 157 164 42 1G7 68 80 90 162 64, 157 78 78, 153 165 43, 127, 172 83 154, 167 81 64 75 81 220 Index. Baltimore Sun 163 Baptist Deacon 3y Bard well, Rev. William 180 Barker, Jacob 141 Barnard, Alonzo 65 Barnes, George W, 84 Barr, James 81 " Mrs. 46 " Rev. Hugh 46 Barrer, B. G. 79 Barton, David W. 137 " Richard W. 137 Bateman, William 78 Baton Rouge, Agricultural Society of 38 Bayhi, P. 74,81 Beall, Samuel 168 Beasley, A. G. A. 84 JohnC. 154 " Robert 63,79 Beene, Jesse 63 Bell, Abraham 65 " Samuel 169 Bennett, D. B. 63 Bcsson, Jacob lol Bezon, Mr. 79 Bingham, Joel S. 81 Birdseye, Ezekiel 90, 157, 179 Birney, James G. 37,47 Bishop, J. 78 Blackwell, Samuel 39 Bland, R. J. 63 Bliss Mayhew and Co 168 " Philemon, 31, 35, 36, 37,41,43, 102, 138 Bolton, J. L. and W. H. 73 Boudinot, Tobias 28,92 Bouldin, T. T. 40 Bourgoing, J. F. 125 Bourne, George 28,52,178 Bradley, Henry 157 Bragg, Thomas 166 Brasseale, W. H. 63 Brewster, Jarvis 30 Brothers, Menard 73 Brove, A. 81 Brown, J, A. 77,82 " John 47 " Rev. Abel 88 " Thomas 80 " William 80 Bruce Mr. 182 Buchanan, Dr. 40,58,112,118 Biickels, William D. 80 Burvant, Madame 77 Burwell 137 Bush, Moses E. 81 Buster, Mr. 70 Butt, Moses 168 Byrn, Samuel H. 162 Calvert, Robert 84 Carney, R. P. 77 Carolina, History of 35 Carter, Mrs. Itlizabeth L. 79, 172 Caulkins, Nehemiah 11, 30, 31, 36 Channing, Dr. 38, 44, 127 Chapin, Rev. William A. 105 Chapman, B. F. 168 '' Gurdon 84 Charleston Courier 153. 156, 105, 166 " Mercury 84,165,171, 175 " Patriot 169 herry, John W. 80 Child, David L. 90 " Mrs. 90, 124, 140 Choules, Rev. John 0. 39 Citizens of Onslow 156 Clark, W. G. 166 Clarke, John 87 Clay, Henry 37, 183 " Thomas 28, 29, 30 Clenderson, Benjamin 172 Clergyman 107 Coates Lindley 170 Cobb, W. D. 156 Colborn, J. L. 84 Cole, Nathan 61,89 Coleman, H. 156 Colonization Society 60 Columbian Inquirer 168 Comegys, Governor 163 Congress, Member of 67 Connecticut, Medical Society of 135 Constant, Dr. 67 Cooke, Owen 73 Cook, Giles 137 " H.L. 165 Cooper, Thomas 117 Cornelius, Rev. Elias 161 Corner, Charles 73 " L. E. 63 Cotton planters 38 Cowles, Mrs. Mary 85 " Rev. Sylvester 177 Craige, Charles 154 Crane, William 63 Crutchficld, Thomas 81 Cuggy, T. 73. 154 Curtis, Mr. 75 " Rev. John H. 64 Cuyler, J. 168 Daniel and Goodman 82 Darien Telegraph 207 Davidson, Rev. Patrick 179 Davis, John 35, 36 Davis, Benjamin 167 " T. 166 " Thomas 172 Dean, Jethro 68 Debruhl, Jesse 83,84 Demming, Dr. 39 Densler, T. S. 155 Derbigny, Judge 163 Dew, Philip A. 84 " President 182 Dickey, Rev. James H. ' 128 " William 93 Dickinson, Mr. 39 Dillahunty, John H. 80 Doddridge, Philip 183 Dorrah, James 62 Downman, Mrs. Lucy M. IM Douglas, Rev. J. W 184 Drake and Thomson 164 Drayton, Colonel 110 Drown, William 75 Dudley, Rev. John 74 Dnggan, John 154 Dunn, John L- 165 Dunham, Jacob 177 Durcll, Judge 131 Index. 221 Durett, Francis Dustin, W Dyer, William Eastman, Rev. D. B. Katon, General William Edmunds, Nicholas Edwards, F. L. C " President " Junior " Ellison. Samuel Ellis, Orren Ellsworth, Elijah Emancipation Society of N. C. English, Walter R. Evans, R. A. Everett, William Faulkner, Mr. Fayetteville Observer Fernandez and Whiting Finley, James C " "R. S. Fishers, E. H. and I. Fitzhugh, William H Ford, John Foster, Francis Fox, John B. Foy. Enoch Francisvil'.c Chronicle Franklin Republican Frederick, John Friend.s Yearly Meeting of Fuller, Isaac C. Fullerton, G. S. Furman, B. , Gadsden, Thomas N. Gaines, Rev. Ludwell, G. Gales, Joseph Garcia, Henrico Y. Garland, Maurice H. Gates, Seth M. Gayle, John Georgetown Union Georgia Constitutionalist " Journal Georgian Gholson, Mr. Giddings, Mr. Gilbert, E. W. Gildersterre, William C. 30, Glidden, Mr. Goodo, Mr. Gourden and Co. Grace, Byrd M. Graham, Rev. John Rev. Dr. Grand Gulf Advertiser Graham, Jehab Gray, Abraham Greene, R. A. Green, James R. Gregory, Ossian Gridley, H. Grimke, Sarah M. Grosvenor. Rev. Cynw P Guex, D. F. Gunnell, John J. H. Guthrie. A. A. Guyler, J. 73,74 73 29, 62 127 77 79 28,118 11, 31, 58 42, 64 80 65 28, 60 80 63 162 182 169 82 60 183 137 117 82 154 82 156 160 159 83,84 164 99 69 79 165 92 153 67 139 129 172 178 160 167 166 182 76 84 35, 36, 37, 41, 44 50, 124 69 183 80 84 25 183 78,136 179 80 79 73 137 22, 44, 62 178 74 137 45 77 Halley, Preston Hall, "Samuel Han, E Hand, John H. Hansborough, William Hanson, Peter Harding, N. H. Harman, Samuel Harrison, General W. H. Hart, F. A. " Rev. Mr. Harvey, J. Hawley, David " " Rev. Francis Hayne, General R. Y. Henderson, John " Judge Hendren, H. Herring, D. " ^ Dr. Hitchcock, Judge Hite, S. N. Hodges, B. W. " Rev. Coleman S. Holcombc, John P. Holmes, George, Home, Frederick Honerton, Pliilip Hopkins, Rev. Henry T. Horsey, Outerbridge Hough, Rev. Joseph Houstoun, Edward Hudnall, Thomas Hughes, Benjamin Hunt, John " Rev. Thomas P. Hussey, George P. C. Huston, Felix Hutchings, A. J. Idc, Joseph Indiana, Legislature of Jackson, Stephen M. " Telegraph James, Joseph Jarnett, James T. De Jarvett, James T. Jefferson, Thomas Jenkins, John Jett, Marshall Johnson, Bryant '• Cornelius " Isaac '' Josiah S. JoUey, J. L. Jones, Alexander " Anson " Hill '' James " R. H. " W. Jefferson Jourdan, Green B. Judd, D " Mrs. Nancy Keeton, G. W. Kennedy, John Kentucky, Synod of Kephart. George Kcrnin, Charles Kevcs, Willard 80 69, 75, 7G, 92, 181 81 63,73 92, 178 80 61 84 117 92 86 164 G4,91 94 166 73, 153 128 137 81 84 79 81 74 87 82 159 169 79 88 37 181 165 78 162 83, 164 k; 76 162 83 101 59 79 166 78 154 62 110, 117 80 82 62, 79 36, 37, 43, 65 78 38 78 39 102 165 156 inr 135 82 62 88 162 82 61, 167 169 74 70 222 Index, Kimball and Thome 129 " George 171 Kimborough, James 79 King, Charles 169 " John H. 82 " Nehemiah 165 Knapp, Henry E. 36 " Isaac 70 Kyle, Frederick 178 " James 178 Lacv, 1 heodore A. 16(i La dd, William 29, 30 40, 43, 86, 1.38 Lains, O. W. 77 Lambelh, William L. 73 Lainbre, Mr. 73 Laneette, R. 81 Langhoriic, Scruggs and Cook 137 Larrimer, Thomas 69 Lalimcr, W. K. 136 fjawless, Judge 157 Lawyer, Zadok 80 Leduilh, Thomas 78 Lefiwich, William 28, 36, 41, 43, 48 Lcmes, Ferdinand 73 Leverich and Co. 154 Lewis, Kirkinan 164 Lccington Intelligencer 164 " Observer 166 Little, Mrs. Sophia 75 Loflano, Hazlet 73 Long, Joseph 137 Loom is, Henry H. 86 Loring, R. 136 " Thomas 152 Louisville Reporter 67 Lowry, Mrs. Nancy 50 Luminals, A. 78 ,*^yman. Judge 75 " Rev. H. 42, 65, 127, 177 Maeoin, J. 73 jVlacon Messenger 165 " Telegrap 159 Masy, F. C. 30, 105 " Reuben G 28, 41, 43, 98 " Richard 30,41,98 " T. D M. 105 Magee, William 82, 162, 167 Males, Henry 71 Maltby, Stephen E. 41, 43, 64 Manning, P. T. 73 Marietta College, student of 69 Marks, James 81 Marriott, Charles 98 Marshall, John T. 166 Martineau, Harriet 149 Maryland Journal 29, 58 Maryville Intelligencer 61, 114 Mason, Samuel 78 Mathieson, Rev. James 39 May, Rev. Samuel J. 160 Mc Cue, Moses , 165 McDonnell, James 8U McCiehec, Edward J. 156 McGregor, Henry M- ^2 Mc.VIunain, John 78, 83 Mead Whitman 59 Medical College of South Carolina 169 Memphis Gazette 168 " Inquirer a63 Menefee, R. H. J 68 Menzies, Judge 88 Mercer, Mr. 139, 183 Metcalf, Asa B. 77, 153 Middleton, Mr. 139 Miles, Lemuel 79 Milledgcville Journal 155 " Recorder 168 Miller, C. 165 Minister from Texas, A. Jones 102 Minor, W. I. 168 Missouri Republican 158 Mitchell, Dr. Robert 86,89 Mitchell, Isaac 81 IM'Neilly 155 Mobile Advertiser 167, 172 " Examiner 67 " Register 162 Mongin, R. P. T. 166 Montesquieu 118 Montgomery, W. H. 168 Moore, Mr. Va. 60 Moorhcad, John H. 66 Morris, E. W. 82, 16 Moulton, Rev. Horace 28, 30, 3 , 45 88, 109 112, 136,139 Moyne Dr. F. Julius Le 88 Muggridge Matthew 165 Muir J. G. 154 Murat A. 73 Murphy S. B. 63,78 Napier T. and L. 168 Natchez Courier 162, 1G8 Daily Free Trade 169 National Intelligencer 154, 172 Nelson Dr. David 86, 127 " John M. 51, 74, 124 Ncsbitt Wilson 137 Newbern Sentinel 166 " Spectator 156, 162 New Hampshire, legislature of 135 Newman Mrs. B. 172 New Orleans Argus 164 Bee 36, 79, 84, 91, 150, 154, 162, 167 " Bulletin 154, 166 " Courier 91, 139, 183 " Kidnapping at 141 " Mercantile Advertiser 91 " Post 157 New York American 169 Sun 9] Neyle S. 78,83 Nicholas Judge 117 Nicoll Robert 62, 153 Niles Hezekiah 60, 183 Noe James 63 Norfolk Beacon 139, 165, 166 " Herald 160 N. C. Literary and Commercial Standard 152 " Journal 20S> Nourse Rev. James 179 Nye Horace 64, 66, 74, 157 O' Byrne O'Coimell Daniel Oliver Colonel O'Neill Peter Onslow, Citizens of Orme Moses O'Rorke John 166 182 169 165 156 78 165 Index. 223 Ovvrstrect Richard 79 " William 77 Owen Captain N. F. 123 " John W 137 Owens J. G. 165 Parrish John 30, 40, 155 Parrott Dr. 102 Patterson Willie 81,82 Paulding James K. 76, 89 Peacock Jesse 1G9 Perry Thomas C. 180 Petersburg Constellation 16.=) Philanthropist 66 Pickard J. S. 168 Pinckney H. L. 166, 172 Pinkney'William 58 Planter's Intelli